Happy birthday to Shawn! (last week)

Shawn's birthday was just last week. We decided to stay home and celebrate. We ordered some delicious pizza from Amante's, and Shawn wanted to spend the evening washing his car. So that is exactly what we did! In addition to pizza, I made Shawn a red velvet cake, but my cake that was most successful was...a beer cake. Shawn seemed to enjoy this one a lot!

Happy birthday to Shawn!

The best place in our house is...my closet?

This past weekend Shawn and I decided to take on a home improvement project. We don't do these very often (think back to how long it took us to paint the office). But this one wasn't too labor intensive. I'd been thinking for awhile now that the wall in our closet could be much more functional if it had some shelves (We already have a number of shelves, but there was one wall with a window in the middle and nothing else).

Shawn was in agreement, so we headed out to Lowe's in search of closet storage. We found a nice set that we thought would work, but after getting it all home, we realized we had forgotten one main piece that helps hold everything in place. After heading back to Lowe's, we had everything we needed to update the closet.

We added an additional shoe cube and one for sweaters, as well as an upper shelf for shoe boxes and less used items. I am absolutely in love with our closet now. Don't get me wrong--there are still a few additions we need to make (another shelf on the other wall, some hooks for necklaces, etc.), but it is pretty close to a dream space for me. I sat on the floor for awhile and just enjoyed the view. :-)

All defended, with wontons to celebrate

Yesterday was my comprehensive exam and dissertation proposal defense. What this means is I spend 2 hours in a room with my amazing committee members (5 experts on adolescence, sexual health, and health communication) and they determine if I am able to move on to the next stage in the PhD process.

A few weeks ago, I took 5 exams, one from each committee member. The exams would come to my email in the morning, and I would have four hours--closed book--to write on the topic and answer the question. The meeting yesterday involved expanding on some of those answers and addressing some additional questions. I then had to present on my proposed research project and discuss. My committee members were great and provided some very useful feedback. After that, I stepped in the hall and they decided whether I "pass." Luckily the verdict came down that I did pass, so I am now officially a PhD candidate, or considered ABD (all but dissertation). It means I am one (actually quite a few) step closer to getting the PhD. One final research project and defense of it and I am done! (That won't happen until the spring, though).

To celebrate, my advisor took me out to lunch. Shawn brought me some flowers, and Shawn and I decided to spend some time cooking. I wanted to celebrate with champagne and a new recipe. We watch The Next Food Network Star, and last week, one of the contestants made wonton nachos I was determined to try. We had a few hiccups along the way (like practically smoking out our house by heating oil in the wrong type of pan) but overall, the wontons came out great. Here is some info on the process (which took 2 hours as opposed to the suggested 30ish minutes).

We had purchased all the ingredients the day before, except the wonton wrappers, which are kind of important. The stores we visit didn't have them. Luckily, while at lunch with my advisor, she mentioned a Chinese specialty store in Chapel Hill and I was able to get wonton wrappers. Shawn and I had considered making them, but after seeing how thin they are, I think that would have taken us an additional two hours.

To make wontons, we first made a filling of pork, onions, garlic and ginger. This then gets spooned into a wrapper. Here Shawn demonstrates the process (his folding skills were much better than mine).

Put filling in center

Fold into triangle, sealing edges with egg wash

Fold top over and bring tails together

This led to a number of wontons (you can see the ones I created on the right--they look a little wonky)

Shawn was a pro by the end

I spent some time overseeing the process

We then cooked them in some oil until blistered

For the nacho part, we added cheese and broiled, but we only did some--there were a lot of wontons.

In addition to the nachos, we made homemade salsa. Below you can see the finished product.

We then had some friends come over to enjoy them as well. We had a great evening, with some very good food.

A Capitol Fourth

As the Fourth of July approached, Shawn and I weren't sure what we wanted to do this year. Last year we went to watch the fireworks at the UNC stadium, which was fun. We eventually decided to make the trip up to D.C. Our good friend Cassie is there, and what better place to spend the 4th than the nation's capitol? Plus, another set of friends had highly recommended the experience.

We headed out on the third for the D.C. area. Traffic was surpisingly light, but a wrong turn following the GPS and a thunderstorm had us driving through downtown D.C. at 10 p.m. at night in an effort to find Cassie's place. We eventually made it and had a nice (late) evening with her.

The next day it was the 4th. There isn't a lot that happens on the National Mall before 2 p.m., so we instead went to Bethesda to get DC/Georgetown cupcakes (like on the television show!). Cassie and I have been a few times, but it was Shawn's first trip. He was impressed by the cookies and cream cupcake. Unfortunately, there are no pictures from this. The cupcakes were so good--we ate them!

We then decided to take the metro to the National Mall. The metro wasn't too crowded, but as we stepped out of the metro, the intense heat hit us hard. It was a lovely 95 degrees, but the heat index reported that it felt closer to 105. I think the heat index was right. We didn't last more than two hours. We had packed water, and we spent time in the shade, but we felt like we were melting.

We walked around for a bit and explored.

And eventually headed back to the metro. Of course the one we chose to go to was closed, so we had to walk another 8 blocks in the crazy heat.

We then spent the evening making lasagna, watching fourth of July specials, and the Capitol fireworks from Cassie's rooftop deck. Although we didn't see the fireworks up close, we had a nice view, and the best part--air conditioning was only a few floors away. Maybe next year we will actually see a bit more of D.C. for the fourth, but seeing Cassie was celebration enough.