I am not using the recommended yarn (so my sweater probably won’t be as stretchy as it would be) and I’m not using a contrasting color but I’m still so very excited about. Right now I’m working on the front. I’ve done the bottom and gotten through the belt and I’m about to start the bust shaping. I feel like I’ve made so much progress! I might even be able to wear it by Spring!

Unfortunately my photography improvisation is not as up to snuff as my food improvisation. Every now and then I make a type of soup that I call “stuff I have in my house” soup. Guess what goes in it? That’s right, food I happen to have on hand. There are some benefits of this soup. First, it uses vegetables, pasta, beans, bits of meat, whatever happens to be around and needs to be eaten. And, You always have a unique soup that you’ve possibly never had before and will never happen again. But, it has its drawbacks, too. The biggest one being that you have a unique soup that you’ve possibly never had before and will never have again. Tonight I made this soup. I used an onion, 3 beets, 5 potatoes, 3 cups of white beans, 6 cups of chicken stock, two teaspoons of olive oil and Penzey’s Singapore Spice mix.

I started with the olive oil and the onion. I chopped the onion and sauteed it in the olive oil, about 3 or 4 minutes. To this I added the broth, beans, potatoes and beets. I brought it to a boil and then remembered the spice mix, about 2 teaspoons. I then simmered it until the potatoes were cooked through.

The soup turned out pretty good this time, although it was a little bland. Usually I add garlic to soup, but I’m currently out of it. The beans are wonderful. I love eating beans because they fill you up for a long time. I’ve been eating more beans since I’ve discovered Linda Watson’s website. They are wonderful. Beans are full of fiber and protein and there’s just something about eating them that makes me feel more even and stable when I’ve had them in a meal. Food is interesting and fun like that. I recommend you try your own stuff you have in your house soup!

The book is about a man named Viktor who is a writer that is incapable of writing anything of length. He adopts a penguin when the local zoo gives away animals that it can no longer afford to feed. Viktor submits a sketch to a local newspaper and then lucks into a job with them. He is to write obituaries of notable people that the newspaper can have on hand, in case something unfortunate happens to them. I was okay with this premise because I’m pretty sure this is something that actually happens.

Then the story takes an interesting turn, the people in the obituaries start turning up dead. At first, Viktor doesn’t think anything of it. But, as the tale goes on it becomes more and more clear that the people Viktor rights obituaries for are people who have been marked for death by some secret organization. During the tale, we are introduced to Sonya, a little girl that ends up in his care, a local militiaman named Sergey and Sergey’s cousin Nina.

It was an interesting little book that, if I’m being honest, I liked at the beginning and at the end but I didn’t really care for in the middle. Viktor doesn’t seem to know what he wants out of life and would have no direction if it weren’t for his job and the people who enter his life. Viktor’s attempts to play house and into involve himself in the lives of those around him seem half-hearted and wasted. And, reading this book I felt a little lost sometimes myself. I think it was meant to be funnier, satirical, and either I didn’t get it or the humor didn’t quite translate. The ending was unexpected and a little abrupt, but provided an interesting conclusion to the novel. I have Penguin Lost and I will read it soon, but I’m not dying to dive into the book.

I will start with the anatomy of a neuron. The neuron has a few primary parts (although not all neurons contain all of the parts.)

First every neuron has a soma, or a cell body. This is where the neuron’s nucleus is. Secondly all neurons have dendrites, which are little fingers reaching out than can grab information (often in a chemical form) from other cells. Then, many neurons, but not all neurons, have an axon. An axon is like a dendrite, except its main function is to transmit information. Axons have an axon terminal that is at its end and is specialized. Axons and dendrites as a class of things can be called neurites. An early view of the nervous system had it that the brain was a continuous thing, a network of merged cells. But, now we know that each neuron is its own structural or functional unit that can participate in larger structural or functional units.

The soma of a neuron is between 5 and 135 microns in diameter. A micron is 10^-6meters. That’s super tiny. And, axons can be anywhere from 100 microns to a whole meter in length. For example, the axons that run from your spinal cord down to your foot are going to be pretty long.

Neurons have different shapes depending on their use. That axon that I just mentioned that runs down to your foot will probably be attached to a soma with a few dendrites. On the other hand, an amacrine cell in the retina won’t have an axon at all and will use dendrites to send its information.

And, that’s just the beginning. Come back next week for a description of a how a neuron chemically sends and receives messages.

The format of the tales was also nice because it presented each case separately, allowing me to read a tale or two before going to bed. I love when author’s create works that conveniently fit into my own habits. I liked the tales so much I bought (for a whole 99 cents) the complete Sherlock Holmes collection for my nook. I haven’t decided which nookbook to read next. I have it narrowed down to three: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (I just finished the mini-series starring Richard Armitage on Netflix), Silas Marner by George Eliot (from the rolled over book challenge) and by George Alan England (about which I know nothing other than it is the book that immediately follows Sherlock Holmes in the collection.) Any thoughts, my dear readers?

Then, while we were painting we had a little to drink. And, some awesome carrot salad. Then I went off the rails again a little. I had some popcorn. I had some chocolate. I had tea with milk in it. Good times. Since then I’ve not measured absolutely everything. But, I have measured most of what I’ve eaten, just so that I can continue to eat the right portion size. I’m pretty happy with the outcome. I feel pretty good which is nice. I worried a little that I’d be super hungry all the time if I was only eating small amounts of food, but I haven’t. I have made sure to keep snacks (portioned out). The snacks have not always been my favorite. I like almonds, usually. But, VT recommended that I use unsalted almonds. I have probably been getting too much sodium.

Going from homemade vegetarian food to processed cheddar brats so not pleasant for my digestive tract. I do not recommend that you do that. Ever. On Friday I was back on the wagon. I had salads for two of my meals. And, today I made Linda Watson’s kale and onion pizza. From scratch. It was super tasty. I’m looking forward to eating the planned overs this week at lunch. I was surprised how nicely the kale on the pizza turned out. I thought it would be a little bitter and weird, but it was delicious. I also added basil to the pizza sauce (which was also homemade) because I like basil. The recipe says that the pizza dough lasts for up to two weeks in the fridge and the recipe made enough for two pizzas. (I substituted some of corn flour for some of wheat flour in the dough because I ran out of wheat.) And the sauce recipe made enough for three pizzas. The leftovers are safely tucked away so that I have a head start on dinner in the future. Pretty sweet.

I think it is important to occasionally remind yourself that “this is what a serving size looks like”. Not because I think everyone should obsessively be on a diet but because being able to look at something and size it up is a useful skill when you want to make sure you’re getting all of your vitamins and minerals and macro-nutrients and such. Also, it helps me be mindful: mindful of my own needs, mindful of my own impact on the world (what am I throwing out, where is my food coming from, etc) and in a way mindful of the time I have. I feel like that is a good place to start in a new year.

This was a no-brainer. I really wanted to pick something that I cooked, but this meal jumped in my head the moment I thought of what I’d made an posted about this year. This wasn’t my recipe and I wasn’t involved in the cooking. I am, of course, speaking of the OhEmGee Chop. It was so tasty. The creaminess and the wine with the shallots. Ah. I’m drooling just thinking about it now. Onto books, we go!

Divergent by Veronica Roth was the best book I’ve read this year. (Non-school book, clearly). It is the story of a girl living in a dystopian future in a destroyed city of Chicago. Society is broken up into factions and she has to choose which faction will be her faction. But, there is a war coming. She needs to make her choice and keep herself safe and alive. I really enjoyed the main character and the relationships she developed. I am looking forward to the next books in the series. This leaves us with knitting.

While this probably shouldn’t count as the best thing I’ve knitted this year for two reasons: the first one is that it didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to. The second reason is that it is crocheted and not knitted. This wrap is much thinner in the middle than it should be (if I’d followed the pattern and not added and deleted stitches) but that actually just makes it a nicer scarf. I really like the colors and it quite soft and warm. I’m proud of my first big crochet project.

This year I’ve done a lot of cooking, reading, knitting and socializing. I’ve almost gotten so-close-I-can-taste-it to being done with my Qualifying Project and I’ve written and handed in what my advisor called a pre-dissertation-proposal proposal. It has been a busy year!

So, what’s on deck for next year? I’m hoping to move into more budget friendly vegetarian cooking. I also am planning on knitting garments. Oh, so many garments, starting with pairs of socks. I received a bunch of sock yarn a book on how to knit socks two-at-a-time. I also have all the materials to make my first sweater. My human-beings-can-be-terrible-too-post-Christmas-book this year is going to be Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. Finally, I will be starting a new feature that I’m going to call, “Seriously! The Brain!” that features the fun and interesting things I learned last semester in my neuro-anatomy class. And, obviously I plan on moving forward with my PhD. I hope everyone has a lovely and safe New Year’s Eve. I look forward to the awesome things that 2012 will have in store for us all.