Life,blogging, Trader Joe's, P.F. Chang's

I apologize for the lack of blog posts, this has been a quite busy month. Mike will probably start blogging more since his days are spent playing ultimate frisbee, picking up a new hobby as a day-trader, watching his fantasy football team, and taking care of the house (cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc). In regards to all the housework, he's actually quite amazing, and I lucked out at picking a wonderful husband. Here's some pictures of food that is waiting for me when I arrive home after school.
This is what I have been up to and will continue to be doing for the next few months:
1. Working on my research
2. Writing my thesis
3. Applying and interviewing for jobs
4. TA-ing an online course (which involves going up to Oakbrook, IL once a month)
5. NOT going to the gym, since I messed up my left knee from all the cardio (step and kick& crunch) classes I've been going to. Now walking down the stairs sends a sharp pain through my leg. So it's water aerobics or yoga for me if I want to stay in shape.
This past Thursday, prior to class, we stopped at Trader Joe's, (I heart Trader Joe's!) to pick up snacks, and P.F. Chang's. (I also heart P.F. Chang's too) for dinner. My definition of Trader Joe's is that it's a cheaper Whole Foods. P.F. Chang's is like a Chinese American fusion restaurant.
My advisor must think I'm crazy because I spent about $70 at Trader Joe's. My favorite items at Trader Joe's is their Shave Cream, dried unsweetened pineapple slices, mini crispy crunchy chocolate chip cookies, and dried mango slices.
So here's a list of some of the items I bought: everything listed above and freeze-dried mango (these are yummy! they also sell banana slices and strawberries), black dark chocolate covered almonds, dark chocolate covered edamame, blood orange italian soda, sparkling blueberry juice, sweet potato chips, a mixture of different root vegetable chips, habanero pistachios...
One of my favorite dishes is Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps. Oh they are so fresh and delicious. We also ordered the Asian slaw, which was like your basic cabbage slaw with a Asian mustard mayonnaise dressing. This was also tasty.
The last dish we ordered was the lemon grass prawns with garlic noodles. Boo P.F. Chang's! The grilled prawns were huge and tasty, but those noodles were intolerable. It was spaghetti noodles swimming in liquid butter-oil overly seasoned with coarse salt. It'd be wise to take this dish off the menu or just serve the prawns without the noodles.
My advice, if you're going to P.F. Chang's order the lettuce wraps, Chang's spicy chicken, or probably anything with the "Chang's" in the name.

Only downside to P.F. Chang's is that all the times I've eaten there, I drink massive amounts of water, and then when I'm home still thirsty and drink more water. I love the flavor of the food, but I think it's a little bit too salty for my tastes.

So that's a recap of my week and month. I'm off to another state next month for a few days. I'll give you a hint to where I'm going; the last time I was there was in high school at a science fair when George W. Bush (the governor) was a guest speaker at one of the functions (I guess you can back calculate and figure out how old I am). Second hint, I'll be seeing one of my really good friends while I'm there.