Weekend activities

This hasn't been, for me, the most ambitious weekend in history.

Originally I was slated to participate in a science blogging conference this weekend. It was the second annual NC Science Blogging Conference and was held on Saturday. My trip to the Lemur Center on Friday was associated with the conference.

I participated in the conference last year, as you can read about here if you're really bored.

Unfortunately two things interfered with my attendance this year. First, Lee decided she needed to visit my house--finally. Since this weekend is a 3-day affair it was the best time in January to come over. As you can see here, Lee doesn't like to wake up early. I don't understand the need to sleep at 4am but she does it anyway. Weenie.

The other problem was snow. We here in the south really aren't well equipped to drive in snow. And since it was supposed to be snowing almost all day Saturday on my end of the Triangle--I live way over on the Piedmont side--and I had no desire to drive 45 miles each way in snow, I decided to skip the conference. I did enough of that nasty snow & ice driving when I lived in upstate NY to last several lifetimes!

So instead of going to the conference we had a nice sausage and egg breakfast here at home. I added some Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and a lot of sauteed onions. We watched some episodes of Deadwood while we ate. Very nice.


And despite Lee needing a lot more sleep than I do--especially given my current bout of insomnia--her being here seems to be helping me sleep too. I'm only getting about 3 hours each day but that's a lot better than I was doing when I was alone. I wish I could convince her to stay longer. She's far too independent tho. Dammit.

For dinner we had eye of round roast, prepared in a new crock pot that I received for Christmas. This was the inaugural voyage for the crockpot and despite some wrinkles in performance, a nice meal was had by all.


There's the beef peeking out from amidst all the veggies. Hi cow!

As a result of "the wrinkle", Lee and I ate mashed potatoes all by themselves while waiting an extra 2 hours for the veggies to be adequately cooked.

Someone, and I'm not naming names here, didn't program the crockpot correctly. Yes, the cute little thing needs programming. It even has a temperature probe that gets stuck into the meat. I do love toys!


Ewwww! Here's the nasty veggie bad parts. They're ultimately going to end up in my yard over in the rabbit and bird area.

I just don't see why people enjoy eating green things when there's so much candy in the world.

Now I have to figure out what to make for breakfast today. Maybe some more muffins. You can never get too many muffins in your belly!