Pancetta Yum!

Aaron made me pasta with the pancetta last night. It was most tasty!!



Tomorrow is my last exam. Yipee! Then it's two days to graduation and just a few more days to starting my job. Income will be such a novel thing. Ian had his six month birthday on this past Friday. It's hard to believe he's growing so fast. His first tooth broke through on Monday the 23rd. Wow! Last night I put him to sleep and was able to just rock him and let him sleep in my arms for a bit with no worry about having to get back to working on some homework set - it was bliss. Today I am meeting with a couple friends for lunch and maybe doing a bit of shopping after. Yes, I will still do some studying as well, but I went to unpack my summer clothes from two summers ago (pre-pregnancy) and found that they are a size too small. I'll have to do something about that this summer - but for now I need something to wear for graduation! It so great to have school work done (or mostly done) for now. Ian let me sleep in until 8 this morning! He's so good to his momma.

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House For Sale

Know anyone that wants to buy a house? I just spent five days swapping out the kitchen sink in our house in Grand Rapids in the hope that this will make it more marketable. That and we dropped the price so it is now less than what we paid for it. I guess the only thing left is to bury a statue of a unknown (can't remember) saint upside down in the backyard. Does anyone know what I am talking about or where to get a saint? I would try anything at this point.

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Pancetta

I thought that maybe you deserved an explanation about the pork belly, but then no one seemed to question why the heck we had meat hanging in our closet. Which gives me some indication that this kinda of weirdness from us doesn't seem out of place. hmmm... I get the feeling you guys think we are a little quirky.



Ok, back to the meat. This is one of Aaron's projects as you might have guessed. He is making Pancetta which is just Italian bacon. The only difference is that Pancetta isn't smoked and bacon is, also Pancetta has some herbs in the cure - note the dark bits stuck to the outside. I think I deserve some good wife props that when he suggested this I didn't say "I will not have meat hanging in our closet!!". I was a little put off that when he was skinning the pork belly he brought the skin to me to show me that it was a sow - noted from the line of nipples running down the belly. Yuck! Anyone for bacon? It was in our refrigerator for a week curing in a ziplock with a lot of salt and then it has been hanging in the downstairs closet for most of the two weeks required to finish the cure. I will be trying this is the next few weeks (good wife) and will let you know the result. Actually, given that Aaron is making it, it will probably turn out great. Who knows, you may be having BLTs for lunch on graduation day. Yum Yum

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Now What?

I am finally done with classes!! And most of my finals as well. The big presentation went remarkably well and we turned in the final report - at the end it was 238 pages long. This is the work me and my project group have been working on all semester. I was the "project manager" and I was working with five other "engineers" on the design of a four story reinforced concrete structure. Anyway it was an incredible amount of work and I am very glad it is done. I only have one final to go and that one is on the 26th. I finished my last problem set about two hours ago, put Ian to bed, ate dinner and now I don't know what to do with myself. It always takes me a week or so to ramp down. In the mean time I am off to GR tomorrow morning to put a new sink and dishwasher in the house. We have it on the market (so if anyone knows anyone who is looking...) and recently dropped the price to below what we paid for it. I just want the darn thing off of our hands. So I think I have decided what to do - go to sleep. See y'all soon.

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Hanging Meat

img_0551, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Windsor.

Doesn't everyone keep a little pork belly hanging in their closet?

Mornin' Joe

img_0516_edited, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Windsor.

Ian having a morning cuppa joe with Dad. He just isn't himself until he's had his cup. I can relate.

Two More Days

Hello. I really am trying to be better at the blogging and to that end have installed a mini editor in my browser and linked my flickr account as well. New gadgets always help me get the job done! I am currently procrastinating doing some more work on a project due Monday. Monday is gonna be a douzy with a final presentation on our capstone design project, the final report due as well, and a final exam in another class. Whew!



Did I tell y'all I got a job? Aaron is really excited by the prospect of all this schooling finally paying off. It's a summer internship with a local company called SDI (Structural Design Inc not Strategic Defense Initiative). They're a small company but I like that. I like to think that I will get more contact hours working with the engineers rather than fetching coffee or making copies like I might in a big firm. The nice thing about this is that if we all get along they would like to offer me a full time job after I am done with my masters. This may be pretty darn convenient if Aaron goes to EMU to get his teaching degree. Anyway, SDI is working on the renovation of the Big House so that's pretty cool.



That's it for now - back to work! Two more days!

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More Info About the Flickr Site

I wanted to add that anyone can now download the original picture if you would like to add it to your collection or print it. At the top of the picture is a button that says "All Sizes". If you click on this it offers the picture in, well, all sizes, including the original file. This is one of the reasons I changed web photo sites.

Enjoy!

Three More Days!!

I'm surprised I didn't get any smart aleck remarks from my darlin' brothers about that last entry. Maybe they've given up on me and stopped checking the blog.

I have three more days of classes and then it's all over. For now. Ok, I still have to take an exam on the 26th and then I have to make up an incomplete over the summer, but then it's all over. Well, ok, my bachelor's degree is done. ARGH! Fine, I still have a bunch to do...

But at least this summer I am only working a full time job... and raising a child.... and finishing the incomplete. So! It'll still be less work than going to school full time. At least my weekends will be mine. No more guilt that I am playing with Ian and not getting school work done or guilt that I am not playing with Ian to do work.

Ian is awesome. I fall in love with that kid everytime I look at him. I started posting pictures of Ian, Japan and the family on flickr and they finally made our photos public. So if you tried looking for them before and couldn't see them it was because flickr had to make sure we were legit before they would make us public. Now you can go to www.flickr.com and search for Ian Stek or Elizabeth Windsor or Aaron Stek or any number of other key words and find our pictures. If you want to go further than that and be notified when I post new pics you can scroll down to the bottom of my page and there is a button with the word "FEED" next to it. I believe this is a way to subscribe to my site. I can't wait until Ian starts dating (no really I can wait!) then I can just give his girlfriends the link and they can see all of his embarrasing photos published on the grand ol' world wide web. Tee Hee

This is just a preview of what you may see and my recent favorite picture of my two men.

Stranger and Stranger Things

Hi it's me. You remember me. I'm the one that is supposed to be keeping a blog at this site. This is my last full week of classes so you can imagine that I am a little busy. So the last thing I was blabbing on about was my new couch - still have it, still love it. I finally got that coffee table and shelves to go with so my internal decorating itch has been scratched. Well, almost. Aaron and I are going to paint Ian's bookcases in bright primary colors whenever it warms up or stops snowing/raining. Maybe we'll get them done before we move :-)

What prompted me to write a new blog entry rather than head off to bed as any sensible woman would do who has to wake up at 5, is that I just got to write in my calendar "lunch with the Secretary of the Navy". Hmmm... not something I ever imagined would make my calendar. So this may require some explanation and let me quickly add that I haven't run off to join the Navy or anything. You may have read in a few entries ago that I recieved this award from the College of Engineering. Well turns out that they attached some importance to this and have invited me to a luncheon with our commencement speaker. You guessed it - the Secretary of the Navy, Donald Winter. This goes in the places I never thought life would take me file.... What does one say to the Secretary of the Navy when the country is at war and you don't believe in that war? I guess I'll try "Hello".

I should back up a little here and tell you about the award ceremony. Did I mention in my earlier entry that they asked me to give a short speech about my experiences at the University and some words to the students to follow me? I guess as the winner of the distinguished class award for a senior in the College of Engineering you are asked to say a few words. I did. And I spoke from my heart. Which meant I got up in front of a lot of people and cried. This is for reasons that most of you know. Mainly that I am incredibly grateful for the chance to go to UM and make something of myself. They gave me a standing ovation. It was an incredible experience. That's just it my life is so chock full of these incredible experiences I sometimes feel like I am living a dream. Maybe I am. If so don't wake me.