Grandma Dee's Rum Cake

Nailed it.

I think this is actually my Great Grandma's aunt's recipe. Which means that it has that "passed down" delicious factor that you just can't get in anything else.

Having said that, those ladies were not counting calories, I suggest you stay away from this cake if you are. There's a cup of both butter and sugar in the glaze alone. :D

You should probably also stay away from this cake if you are pregnant. The 3/4 cup rum in the cake bakes out, but I put an extra 1/4 cup in the glaze after I took it off the heat.

That's how we roll in this apartment.

The glaze didn't coat the cake as well as I would have hoped, but the glaze is hard. My mom's been making this cake for as long as she's known my dad (36 years) and it's still hit or miss with her. But this is supposed to be a bunt cake, and the glaze is supposed to go on before it comes out of the pan, then cool and harden to the cake in the pan. I didn't have a bunt pan, so I think I improvised pretty well, putting a layer of glaze on the bottom, between layers, and on top.

It just needs some vanilla ice cream. Yummy!

This was the first time I've ever had a "beater" [don't have a mixer so it was technically a whisk] from this batter. I now understand why my mom didn't let us have them as kids, even though with every other recipe there was, my brother and I each got a beater and she got the spatula.

Now I just have to make sure I don't eat the whole thing myself before my roommates get home.

Check out the awesome water bottle I got at the Career Fair last night:

For the past four years I have been going to the Health Sciences Career Fair to get the free stuff: water bottles, pens, highlighters, magnets, more pens, some candy, chapstick, ect. The kind of free crap that people just love to print their name on and give away. This year, I actually expressed a slight interest in some of the companies that had clinics in Phoenix, and I may have actually found a clinic that I would like to spend some time at. It is specifically a Sports Medicine clinic and is directed by an Athletic Trainer, although they do see other general outpatient clients too. However, I found out that I don't get to do as much outpatient as I thought, and in order to pass my Board Licensing Exam (scary) I have to do so much Acute and SubAcute Rehab. Bleh. Acute rehab is like post stroke and old people. Geriatrics? DO NOT WANT.

Next year I suppose I will start asking what they like to hear in an interview and about the interview process in general (ex. Is it appropriate to ask what your salary will be?).

One good think I learned though, if you get further specialized (which I plan on doing) in either Orthopedics or Manual Therapy (the two I am thinking about) "You pick where you want to work and you name what you will be paid."

But the moral of the story is I now have a snazzy aluminum water bottle.

Look at all the things I did this weekend. I feel so productive!

Does the fact that this is the second picture post within a week mean I'm going to get back on track with my posting?

No.

No it does not.

Last year, my cosy little studio apartment was never cold. Heat was included in my rent, so not only could I have the thermostat set however high I wanted, but I also had neighbors to the left, right, and below who were also doing the same thing. I was on the top floor, and in these buildings that were apparently built before the invention of insulation, heat rose into my apartment quite nicely.

This year however, is not quite the same. Not only do we pay for our heat (thus it is set at 62*) but we also have a very large apartment. A large apartment with lots of windows. Lots of windows that are probably older than I am and although they are weird and have two sets of glass (storm windows anyone? Yes? No?) they do NOTHING as far as temperature regulation. They are also coming out of the runners, so there is a lovely draft charging into every room of the house (except the bathroom - I might have to take over when it gets colder. I will make my own flag and everything) through the windows and two outside doors we have. We generally have a lot more outside wall then I did last year.

So what do you do when your house leaks cold air?

You plastic wrap it:

And let me explain, this is not some brilliant idea that roommate Nichole came up with because she is from Green Bay and her family figured it out. Oh no. This is just commonly accepted here. Giant plastic sheets show up at the store with the Halloween decorations. Marquette always puts out flyers for a service day to help "Winterize homes of the elderly in Milwaukee." Like it's normal.

...

This is not normal.

I am using double stick tape to attach shrink wrap to the walls of my apartment and then using a hair dryer to make sure it's in place so I don't freeze to death. HOW IS THAT NORMAL?! WHY WOULD ANYONE CHOOSE TO LIVE IN A PLACE WHERE THAT IS NORMAL????????

As a note, I have no idea if the newspaper is a normal thing. But after last Tuesday it seemed like a good idea and I don't really care how it looks.

Last Tuesday was the day that reminded me of why I hate it here. It had been SO NICE up until now. I had been having a good time with the roommates and classes (for the most part) I can put up with. I was ENJOYING MYSELF. To the point where I may or may not have forgotten that it will get miserably cold.

But then we woke up on Tuesday. It was cold, and raining, and windy. I sat in my room trying to do homework and I couldn't feel my toes. It was the kind of cold INSIDE OUR APARTMENT that makes it so you can't think about anything else except not being cold anymore. I'm currently sitting here, in two pairs of socks, a shirt, a long sleeve shirt, a hoodie, wrapped up in the blanket my aunt crocheted for me, and I am still cold. I've got two layers of plastic on each window so far and I'm about to add another. Nichole told me that last year they had to do 5 layers for my room and the one at the other end of the hall - the ones with two windows and a full facing outside wall. Nichole and Marie only have one window each and are much better protected as far as how the building is set up.

So maybe I'm not becoming a Pagan. I'm about halfway through one of the books Mohale gave me and I just can't take it seriously. No, I'm not getting myself a wand and a dagger and a pendant necklace and drawing up a circle in the living room. When they spell magick with a K i can't take them seriously.

But I'll finish the two books and be completely open to whatever their religion entails of them and continue to be interested. I'll celebrate solstices with them and the seasons and be merry with yummy dessert wine.

Also, it's fall now. It seems that happened sometime in the four days I was home last weekend.

So.

I'm becoming a Pagan.

Really though.

Mohale, Emmanuel, and Alicia of Land of Upstairs are all Pagans, and tonight they invited Marie and I to Family Dinner, which was offered in the name of some solstice or something. I've actually been considering this for almost two years now, and he lent me some books about it. Alicia suggested I follow Norse traditions, which would give me the title Heathen. She also said it was acceptable for me to keep my Catholic-ness and therefore I get to once again be a Catholic Heathen. I haven't been one of those since I told Brian Bartel I didn't want to go to an LDS Sunday service with him.

Mohale. A week or so he gave me "The Talk," because my parents never did and has since become my black father.

Alicia brought out some wonderful smelling Rain flavored incense. It kept a bee away that kept trying to eat us.

Also, there is lots of wine and merriment at Pagan Family Dinners. And baked apples with sweet caramel drizzled on them for dessert.

Alicia also promised to take me to her parent's house next 4th of July because there is a carnival near by that we can go to, and then s'mores, firepits, and slip n' slides in her back yard at midnight.

I kind of love living below those three. So far it's making things more enjoyable than living by myself.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled anatomy.

I feel like I should be updating more. Taking more pictures and being all LOOK AT MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!one!!!

But really, there's nothing to report. There's nothing new to take pictures of. There's nothing happening out of the ordinary that warrants taking the time to put a post together. Even right now as I type this, I SHOULD be studying, but I've been doing that all day already, and I needed a break.

Most days, I get up at 7:30am, eat breakfast of oatmeal with raisins, go to class class class, study, eat lunch of a PB&J fruit and carrots, go to more class class class, workout, study, dinner of something rice based, study, go to bed between 11pm and midnight. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. On Tuesday there is a variation because I work in the dining hall from 6am-11am; I usually get something delicious for breakfast and get a hummus-grilled-vegetable-turkey wrap that I smuggle out for lunch later, then class, study study, class until 7pm.

Saturdays I go to Homestead from 8am-2 or 3pm, workout, study, grocery shop, and not pay for drinks at the Harp and Shamrock. Really though, I've been here for 7 weeks and haven't paid for a thing over there yet.

Sundays I run, study, work, and study.

I don't get a day off. Ever.

Woah is me of course. But really, it's just a fact.

I've been listening to Avril Lavigne's song How Does It Feel a lot. The first words of the song are "I'm not afraid of anything," and about 1:00 into the song she sings, "I am young, and I am free."

That's what I keep telling myself anyway.

I will see my lover in just two weeks!