Holidazzling

It's been too long! I've been keeping busy, so the blogging has fallen by the wayside. I wish I had been better about sharing all the wonderful holiday crafts and goodies before the holidays, but alas, this is what you get.
I handmade (almost) all the gifts we gave this year, and naturally, didn't get around to taking pictures. I'll try to do that soon and get them up here. I sewed scarves for the lovely ladies in my life, and made microwaveable rice warmers for the men to warm their chilly toes! I also made fun coffee mugs for a few friends, and, of course, made about 40 Christmas cards! It was fun to see everyone's amazement at the things I'd whipped up.
I also made these wonderful peanut-butter truffles, called Chubby Hubby Buckeyes. They were a hit! I've shared the recipe below. Before we get to that, though, I want to say how thankful I am for the wonderful people in my life. I know we are often more cognizant of that this time of year, but I'm truly blessed to be surrounded by so many delightful folks, and you reading this are most definitely among them. If I haven't said it already, Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year to you!

Now, the truffles. I found the recipe on Pinterest. If you aren't a Pinner, I won't say you're missing out on the world's most important website, but it has been sooooo fun for me to see ideas for crafting, recipes, decorating, and more on there. Plus, because I am friends and family with so many talented folks, I can see their inspirations, too! I don't remember how I stumbled onto this one, but it's a goodie! They are called Buckeyes after an Ohio treat that resembles a tree-nut called a buckeye. Usually they are made without the pretzels, and when dipped in chocolate, an "eye" of peanut butter is left un-dipped, so as to resemble the tree-nut. That was more work, so these were totally covered in chocolate. Still tasted great! Plus, I only know one person from Ohio, so the Buckeye reference was lost on most.

Chubby Hubby Buckeye Truffles Recipe:

Yield: About 18 truffles (I doubled the whole recipe-what are you going to do with only 18?)
Prep Time: 20 minutes | Chill Time: 1 hour, total

1½ cups pretzel pieces
½ cup creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 cup milk or semisweet chocolate chips (since I doubled, I did a whole bag)
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening or vegetable oil (do just shy of a full Tbs. if using oil)

1. Put the pretzel pieces into a resealable plastic bag and crush into small bits (a rolling pin works great for this). My rolling pin is in storage, so I used a wine bottle!
2. In a medium bowl, combine the peanut butter, butter, brown sugar and salt. Stir until all of the ingredients are completely blended and smooth (I used a hand-mixer for just this part). Add the pretzel bits to the peanut butter mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the powdered sugar and mix until completely combined. It will be a little sticky and not fully together. They set up after a few minutes in the fridge. I didn't try it, but you might chill the dough for 5-10 minutes before forming the balls to firm it up. What I did was chill them a few minutes after forming, then rerolled them. They were just too lumpy the first time!
3. Line a small baking sheet with wax paper. Using a small cookie scoop, or about 2 teaspoons worth of peanut butter mixture, gently shape into a ball with your fingertips. Place the ball on the wax paper-lined cookie sheet and repeat with the remaining peanut butter mixture. Place the baking sheet into the refrigerator and chill for at least 30 minutes.
4. When ready to dip the truffles, microwave the chocolate chips and vegetable shortening together in a small bowl in 30-second increments, stirring after each, until completely melted and smooth.
5. Working one at a time, dip one peanut butter-pretzel ball into the melted chocolate and use a fork to roll it around, ensuring that it is completely coated with chocolate. Let any extra chocolate drip off and place back on the wax paper-lined sheet. Repeat with all of the peanut butter-pretzel balls.
6. Return the baking sheet to the refrigerator and again chill for at least 30 minutes. Garnish with a drizzle of melted peanut butter and crushed pretzels, if desired. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I didn't drizzle (I'd made a lot of dishes at that point anyway) but I added some festive sprinkles. Also, keep an eye on them when serving. Mine started to melt sitting close to a warm oven! If that happens, pop them in the fridge until the chocolate sets up again.

 

Enjoy! I know my family sure did! Feel free to forward-I love to share good recipes when I can. It's always nice to know someone tried it and it was tastey, rather than take your chances with one you find in a cookbook or online. Plus, it was easy, so, so easy.

Other than that, things just keep rolling along. I hope you and yours are finding ways to indulge in good food, good company and good cheer this holiday season.
All my love,
Kelli

Baking Bread, and other activities I now have time for

As you know, I love cooking and enjoy baking. Bread, and for that matter, anything that called for yeast, was usually a recipe I'd skip because I'm busy (and pretty impatient.) Still, when a friend posted a recipe for the whole wheat bread from The Cheesecake Factory (a similar version is served at Outback), I had to try it. My mom and I LOVE that bread! Plus, a quick look at the recipe made me realize this could easily be done in an afternoon, rather than a whole day of kneading and rising. The results were delightful! It wasn't quite identical in flavor to that at the Cheesecake Factory, so I may play with adding 2-3 additional tablespoons of cocoa powder next time.

The original recipe is available here: http://www.friedalovesbread.com/2008/10/outback-black-bread-copycat.html
I substituted 2 Tbs. Molasses for the caramel color-it was one thing to track down vital wheat gluten, but I drew the line at caramel color. By the way, the vital wheat gluten is available in the baking aisle in stores that carry specialty flours. I used the Bob's Red Mill brand. If you can't find it, you might try letting the bread rise longer, and/or kneading the bread more to develop the gluten in the bread more. If all else fails, leaving out the vital wheat gluten should just make your bread more flat and shouldn't affect flavor. I also imagine you could do this in a bread machine, I just don't have one.
Ingredients
2 1/2 c. warm water
4 T. butter or margarine melted, or vegetable oil
2 T. caramel color or molasses
1/2 c. honey
3 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
3-4 c. all purpose flour
2 T. cocoa
2 T. active dry yeast
2 T. vital wheat gluten
2 t. salt
Oats (to roll in)

Instructions
Combine first 4 ingredients (water, oil, color, honey) and mix well. Pour wheat flour on top of wet ingredients. Add cocoa, yeast, gluten and salt. Stir until well blended. Allow mixture to stand for 10 minutes to allow yeast to develop.

Add all purpose flour, one cup at a time, until dough clings to hook (I did all mixing by hand since my mixer is still in storage-it was fine) and almost cleans the sides of mixer, about 3-4 minutes.

Allow to raise in the bowl, covered with plastic wrap, until doubled, about 20-30 minutes.

Divide into 8 piles, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Shape into loaves and roll in oats. Place on greased cookie sheet or 2 greased 9 x 5 loaf pans. 

Allow to rise till double, about 20 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy warm with lots of butter! 
And, for your visual enjoyment, my latest card-making gem:

I hope this finds you well, enjoying the warm days and cool nights (finally!)

All the things you can do with infinite time

As someone who just came off three solid years of non-stop toil (and it's not as if I was slacking off before that!), I'm having a tough time adjusting to all this free time. I've tried spacing out my tasks for the day to make myself a little less bored with sitting at home, but I haven't been too successful at just enjoying the time off. I've been praying about it. Did you ever think I'd pray to God to be busy again? I've actually prayed the "right" prayer: "God, please help me see the good in this time of doing nothing." Because praying for what you think God wants you to pray for is better than asking for what you really want, right? So, I'm working on it.
One thing I decided to do right away was tackle new recipes each day. I LOVE cooking, as you know, and it always seems like that first time you try a new recipe it takes forever! So, what better time to try them when I have nothing but time?! I have been cooking my way through Real Simple Magazine's August recipes, which contains 16 dinners that are each under 20 minutes. Like I said, though, the first time is much longer because you have to keep looking at the instructions, trying to figure out the measurements, etc. So, these each took me between 30-40, but now that I know them, I'm convinced 20 minutes is possible.
First up:
Chicken Sausage and Peach Skewers with Green Beans
This one was TASTY! Unfortunately, I forgot to buy kabob skewers, so they were more like sausage and peach sandwiches :)
1 pound green beans, trimmed
1 Tbs. whole-grain mustard
3 Tbs. olive oil
4 fully-cooked sausage links, cut into 1" pieces (I couldn't find cooked chicken sausage, so I added time to cook the ones I bought)
2 peaches or 3-4 plums, pitted and cut into wedges
1/2 baguette or other sturdy roll, cut into 1" pieces (I used 2 good-sized ciabatta rolls, which were delicious!)
Heat grill to medium-high. Toss sausage, peaches/plums and baguette pieces in a large bowl with 2 Tbs. olive oil. Thread the pieces onto kabob skewers. Make a foil packet and place green beans and remaining Tbs. olive oil inside, fold to seal. Place foil packet on the grill, and grill the skewers, turning every couple minutes.

Grilling everything takes about 7-10 minutes, but the kabobs may be done sooner. When everything has nice grill marks on it (and beans are bright green when you peek into the foil packet), you’re all set! Toss the green beans with the mustard, and season with salt and pepper. Serve with extra mustard.

I’ll be sharing all the recipes I try throughout the next couple weeks.

Ninjabread men

You know how sometimes you see something at Target and it just leaps into your cart? Of course, maybe it's just me that happens to (yah, right!) I was shopping with my mom right after the bar exam, and my impulse control was still pretty low, and we fell in love with pretty much everything we saw at Target. But, being charitably-minded, I saw these and just knew Andy would love them:

Andy took a karate class in college (yes, really) and these ninja cookie-cutters just had to come home with me so I could make him some ninjabread men. That said, gingerbread in early August just didn't seem right, so I thought long and hard and came up with Ninja Brownies.
I did two small packages of brownies in a 11 x 14 pan (so they were thinner than most people make theirs) and baked them up. I lined the pan with foil so that I could lift them whole thing out easily when it was time to cut them apart. The hardest part was waiting until they were cool enough to cut out!

 Once they cooled, I went to work. I didn't get very many out of the pan because unlike cookie dough, you can't re-roll brownies out of the funny shaped scraps (don't worry, those brownie scraps went to a good home--ice cream toppings, mmmmmm). So, that left me with 12 little ninjas to frost to stealthy perfection.

 I had a hard time getting the red really to be red (isn't that the way it always is?) but they look pretty good, I think. the ninja stars were also really hard to pipe. Next time, I think I'll look for star sprinkles instead. All in all, I think they are just adorable! I'm giving a couple of them to a friend for his birthday party that Andy and I will go to tonight. I can't wait for the boys to see them!
As you can probably tell, I'm having a hard time adjusting to not being busy. In addition to my baking expedition, I've cleaned our whole house, and done 6 loads of laundry. Today. I'll be glad to start working, for sure! I hope this finds you well and enjoying the last of summer!

Domestic Bliss: Dish washing

I finished the bar exam (YAY!) and then headed with a couple friends to Gunnison, Colorado for a 5-day getaway. We stayed at a lovely hostel (like a cross between a boarding house and a commune and your friend-of-a-friend's couch). It was quite the experience! We had access to a full community kitchen, meaning we could cook all our meals there, but also meaning we had to clean up after ourselves! One of the cool things I picked up while we were there was a tip for making your dish soap last longer. I also find it easier to actually USE the dish soap than the usual method of trying to squirt just a little but ending up with a lot more than you need for one or two little dishes. You take a spray bottle (I picked up an empty one at the Dollar Store) and fill it about half full with water, then half full with the dish soap, then put the spray top back on and shake it enough to combine the soap and water. I labeled mine since we have spray bottles with water, multipurpose cleaner, etc. all over the place. When I'm washing up, I just spray once or twice on the dish (or onto the scrubby) and go to town! It works great! It's a really simple thing, but I would never have thought of it! I asked the hostel's owner about it, and she said an older guest mentioned that he had seen it at another hostel and thought it was a great way to save resources. I agree!

Legally Blonde: The Musical!

Can you see how giddy I am to see my favorite movie brought to life?

the teenagers we stopped to take our photo evidently didn't realize we were posing in front of the sign for the purpose of capturing its contents. Thanks anyway.

 

 

 

You probably wonder what I've been up to since the end of April when I posted last. After we got Andy all graduated, it was time to pack, pack, pack, and sell off and give away most of our stuff! I spent the better part of two weeks wrapping everything up at school, packing, and getting ready for my own graduation. My wonderful family drove out for the graduation festivities, and to help us (a lot!) with our move back to Colorado. The weekend was wonderful, despite all the hard work packing and cleaning, and then the fun was all over and it was time to unpack in our new place in Colorado and start studying for the bar exam. And that is pretty much all I've done since May 17th. Seriously, I've been a very boring person. I have taken ONE day off (really, just one). On the upside, I usually call it quits by 5 or 6, which means I can have dinner with Andy, and sometimes, even with friends!
This week has been particularly brutal because it is my last week of regular class meetings for my bar exam preparation course, meaning that I have 6 consecutive days of class, ending with an 8-hour class on Saturday. Evil. As a reprieve, Andy treated me to tickets to go see Legally Blonde: The Musical! It was so fun! Elle Woods, the original Legal Blonde, overcomes insurmountable odds to succeed at Harvard Law School. It's a darling story of the hard work and heart carrying the day for the underdog, who finds her own way. Even though it's basically the same story as the movie, the music was really fun, and of course silly. One of my favorite lines that is not part of the story in the movie was "With the chance you've been given, you have to be driven as hell!" It was a great reminder that with great power (and opportunity), comes great responsibility. Even though I'm already exhausted from studying, I owe it to myself and to the privilege of the opportunity I've been given to work hard, not only to pass the bar but to be a great attorney when I'm done. It sounds cheesy, but seeing the musical was just the uplifting energy boost I needed to get through the next four weeks!
Now, I'll be crawling into the bar studying cave soon, so you may not hear much until after July 25 when I'm finally over this last (I hope) hurdle!
I hope this finds you all well and enjoying your summer.
With love,
Kelli

Graduations

It has been a busy week at the Riley house. Andy and I are both graduating this year, he from college with a Bachelor of Science in Economics, and I from law school. His commencement festivities were this week, so we've been hosting family, sitting through ceremonies, and partying! I'll try to post pictures of the happy graduate soon, but here's a little snapshot of the card I made for his graduation:

I got the idea from Pinterest. Andy is a huge science nerd, and studied aerospace engineering for many years before deciding to pursue economics. He was so geeked out about the elements of the periodic table that he didn't notice they spelled out CONGRATS.

What I've been up to

To be honest, most of what I've been up to these days is dotting i's, crossing t's, and running around like crazy! Still, I've found a little time to make some fun things. I was soooo lucky that law school was less crazy this semester, so I was able to fly home to throw a baby shower for my dear friend. I was also able to find time over the last couple months to make some really special gifts.

This is a Taggie Blanket. Little ones like the feel of the little satin tags, it's got fun textures for them to play with and snuggle on. I made one for my friend's shower, and another for a friend at school who is expecting a girl. I love the little owl ribbon and the print on the brown courdoroy!

This is a quilt I made for my friend. Owls are so trendy right now, and we ended up doing an owl theme for the shower. I'd like to say I made it with love as my only motivation, but when she opened it, and everyone gasped, that was pretty awesome, too. It's still a bit wrinkled in this picture, but with all the hubub, I didn't get a chance to get a good photo after I washed and pressed it.

To go with the owl theme, we had guests at the shower share "Words of Wisdom" with the Mommy-to-be. The notes people wrote were so sweet!

Here's just a little shot of the decor my mom and I made for the shower. It was so darling! There are little owls on most of the flags, which were tied along 16 feet of bannister!

Flower Belts

So, I posted my quick photo yesterday of the flower belt I made for my friend, and then, thought "Hey, I'll post it quick on Pinterest." And then it went viral. That is, considering that in the picture you can't even tell it's a belt, and then 25 people I've never met commented on it or posted about it, I would say it took on a life of its own. So, I thought I'd show you the other two belts I made for me!

Here's the one that is very similar to the one I posted about before:

And here's the fun yellow one with the daisies:

I made two of the yellow ones so I can have a gift handy for a friend's birthday in a couple weeks. I might wear the yellow one to a baby shower with that blue and white dress this coming weekend.

Here is the link for the tutorial I used to make the belts: http://www.according-to-kelly.com/2011/09/diy-flower-belt-from-your-homebased-mom/

A springy belt, and stellar knockoff

So, I have a love affair with the clothes at LOFT (formerly Ann Taylor Loft-not sure when that changed.) Anyway, I occasionally find a bargain or two, but mostly, I ogle. I was at the mall earlier this week, and couldn't help popping in to look at the pretty stuff. And I saw this darling belt: (sorry the belt itself is so small in the pic)

So, I was in love. I adore the combination of the pale pink, bright coral and taupe. I felt pretty confident, though, that I could create such a specimen for less than $39.99. I'm not saying that's outrageous to spend on a belt, but I wasn't about to spend that when I could make 6 for that price. That's when I remembered that I had seen a tutorial online last spring to make this flower belt:

I never got around to it then. Story of my life.

I dug up my notes on it and set out to the craft store. One thing that was challenging was finding the right contrast of peachy pink, with punchy coral, and the taupe to balance it out. While I was at it (I have lots of friends with birthdays coming up) I picked up stuff to make a yellow belt with daisies on it, too! Pics of that one to come soon.

So here's what I ended up with. I apologize that the only pic is of the flower part on the table. I was hurrying to finish it before I took it as a gift to a birthday party last night!

The belt part looks exactly like the one above (with the ribbon and D-ring closure). My friend was really excited about it! I bought extra supplies, so I'll probably have to whip one up for myself. Oh, did I mention that the whole project took about 20 minutes? Yep, and the divided cost was less than $7 per belt. I'm quite pleased!

I don't have time to blog in 3 places

I was asked to share about Christian activities at the law school, to go on a blog for prospective students, and since I'm way too busy to write unique posts for that, this blog and the school's Faith Blog, I've copied and pasted it here for you :) But I promise a unique fun post just for you soon. I've been busy doing mostly fun things, so I have lots of good stuff to write about!
All my love,
Kelli

The original post is available here. If you go the original post, there's a pretty cute picture of me (because that would evidently entice potential students to want to come here).

I have had a wonderful experience here at St. Thomas, especially with opportunities to deepen my faith and stay connected with God’s calling. I’m delighted to share with you!
I’m a 3rd year (3L) here at St. Thomas, so I’m almost done with law school, which seems crazy! I was excited coming here after learning about the daily Reflection Period, from 12:00-12:30, where time is set aside for worship, prayer, meditation, even yoga. There are no student group meetings and no professors or staff hold office hours; it is a time set completely aside. Daily Mass is offered in the chapel, and there are also several other opportunities to use that time for centering yourself.
When I first started at St. Thomas, I attended a gathering called Weekly Manna during orientation week, and have stuck with it ever since. The group gathers each Wednesday during the law school’s designated Reflection Period. I always compare it to an adult forum or adult Sunday school. We have lunch, then usually open with a reading, feature a speaker reflection (often a member of the faculty), and close with communal prayer. It’s a great chance to connect with other Christians and get free lunch!
As a 1L, I wanted to have more frequent opportunities for Christian worship, so I worked with a few other students and faculty to set aside a room for quiet prayer and reflection each day, as well as start a weekly Bible study, and a weekly Christian worship. Earlier this year, two 1L students wanted to start a prayer group. I helped them get organized, and they now meet every Thursday morning from 8:15-8:45 for breakfast and communal prayer for our community and the world. It has been wonderful to have the administration and faculty be so supportive of students who want to start new activities for spiritual nourishment.
The Bible study has since grown, and Christian Legal Society is working on launching a daily Discipleship group that would gather every day during the Reflection Period for scripture, prayer and fellowship. So, coming soon, there will be not just a quiet space, but actual activities each weekday during the Reflection Period for Christian faith enrichment.
And there’s even more: Prof. Susan Stabile leads several series throughout each semester called “Retreats in Daily Living” that gather weekly, and provide prayer material for each day of the week during the 4-8 week sessions. There are also several Mid-Day Reflections. While she comes from a Catholic perspective, I find it easy as a Protestant to connect with the material. It’s another great community to plug into. She and other faculty also lead Vocation Retreats at the beginning of every semester that help students to focus on God’s calling in their vocation as law students and future lawyers. I have benefited greatly from both the Vocation Retreats (I’ve attended 4) and the Retreats in Daily Living. Her blog contains most of the info on these, http://susanjoan.wordpress.com/, including podcasts of recent sessions.
As I said, St. Thomas has been more than a wonderful place to attend law school; it’s been a nurturing environment for my faith and focus on God’s calling for me.

Owl always love you

I made this owl card after seeing someone's post on Pinterest, which is the American woman's new obsession.

I think it came out so cute! I got it all finished, but something was just missing, so then I added the little pink feet and voila! It wasn't quite as easy as it would have been if I could have used a cricuit, like the original pattern, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. One of my friend's is a Big Sister, and we're making Valentines again this year with her Little Sister and these will be perfect!

I was perusing the books at Target, and something caught my eye. Ok, you've busted me, I'm obsessed with owls. They are so cute, and they are everywhere! I saw a whole book of cake pops, with owl cake pops on the cover. I quickly paged through it and thought "I can do that!" I think I'll need more practice, and I can definitely see the advantage of dipping the pops on sticks instead of my method, which had some "special" results. I was also too lazy to go out and buy the right stuff to decorate them, so they could be a lot cuter. I'm going to make these again this weekend and play around with them more.

For those of you not on the cake pop/cake truffles bandwagon already, here's what I did:

Cake mix & ingredients to make it according to directions

1 can frosting

Chocolate chips

Almond bark

Bake a boxed cake mix according to directions. Doesn't matter what pan since you're going to crumble it up later. I did dark chocolate cake. Let it cool about 30 minutes (don't wait too long, or the next part won't work well). Cut it into hunks, then carefully crumble each hunk into a large mixing bowl. I say carefully because my cake was still really toasty, so don't burn yourself. I crumbled it as fine as I could by hand, then I used a metal spatula to short of chop it up more. You want it to be pretty small crumbs so you don't get lumpy truffles. While the cake crumbs are still warm, stir in one can of frosting (16 oz.), flavor of your choice. I did chocolate because I had it on hand. Since the cake is warm, the frosting sort of melts into it pretty easily, but keep stirring until you get a relatively smooth mixture, about the consistency of raw cookie dough. I used a cookie scoop to make even portions and then rolled each portion into a ball, about walnut size. I flattened the bottom a bit when I put them on the cookie sheet so they wouldn't roll all over. You might need two cookie sheets to fit them all, getting about 40-45 balls. Once they are all rolled, pop them in the freezer at least 30 minutes. I did about an hour, then set them out for a couple minutes before I dipped them. Melt about 6 oz. chocolate almond bark (could do regular white or the candy melts) over low heat. In fact, do it as low as possible to keep it melty and smooth, turning off the heat once it gets melty enough. Some of mine came out goofy because the chocolate was too hot (or not hot enough.) Carefully dip the bottom of each chocolate chip in the melted chocolate to use as a "glue" to stick it the cake ball. There's probably an easier way to do this-maybe use a spoon to dab it on? You need two for each owl, placing them for ears on top. Since the cake balls are really cold, the chocolate sets pretty fast. By the time I got all these done, the first ones were all set. Using a fork to rest the ball on, ears up, use a spoon to drizzle the melted chocolate over the whole ball, tapping gently to get excess off. Slide the covered cake ball onto a wax-paper lined cookie sheet. While the chocolate is still warm, decorate. I would recommend M & Ms for the eyes. I had lots of almonds around, so I used sliced almonds for the wings and slivered almonds for the beaks. I had spinkles in Christmas colors, so I did white and green eyes. Like I said, room for improvement. I'll have to post pictures once I improve :)

Winter Fun

I can't count how many blog posts I've started with "I'm still alive!" This is the worst I think it's been since coming to law school, and I have no excuse because I haven't been all that busy, considering. Oh well, I'm back. And I have pictures!

Andy and I went to an art display of Ice Shanties on frozen Medicine Lake. People here fish year round, and in the winter, at least they have the common sense to take a little hut with them to keep warm in out on the frozen lake. Some artists banded together to create artsy ice shanties and invite people out to visit them. They were really neat! However, out on the frozen lake, there's nothing to break the wind, so it felt like about 5 or 10 degrees, even though on land, it was closer to 25 degrees.

The one of me with the green moustache and goatee is from one of the interactive art projects. There was a daily newspaper, all done with hand-set metal type on a letter press; a dance hall, complete with disco balls and DJ; and a vacation get away, with headphones playing beach sounds! There were lots of other neat things, but those were my favorites. The photo of Andy wearing the walrus hat was part of the ice bicycle area (not sure what the hats had to do with it other than to be silly, but still fun). You can see a pair riding the tandem walleye bicycle above.

All in all, we're hanging in here, with both Andy and I in our LAST semester of school! It's been pretty bearable since the weather has been very mild for winter, and we actually have some free time again.