Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Bits and bobs, part three

Just for the record, I need to correct one error in the comments from last week's post. Nutella does not contain trans fat. Saturated fat, sure, but what's a little saturated fat among friends? (Especially if those friends are eating the chocolaty nutty goodness that is Nutella.)
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I spend all of my spare time (and some not-so-spare time) doing homework and reading for the class I'm taking. General Relativity. Doesn't that just sound stereotypically physics-y? I have to admit that it's a little fun to actually being playing around with equations and thinking about how the great, big, wide world works (instead of just thinking about how the inside of the mind works). On the other hand, my last homework assignment took 16 hours. Andrew tutors me, so considering the going tutoring rate of at least $25, I owe him $400 for last week's work alone.
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Speaking of homework, when I was a kid in elementary school and we had complained about how much homework we had to do, my teacher told us that when we got to middle school we would have to do ten minutes of homework per class hour, and that in college we'd have to do two hours of homework for each class hour. This scared the bejeebers out of me. How could one person do that much work? I hadn't really caught on that in college you'd have fewer hours of instruction than in elementary school. (I also hadn't realized that I would grow up and be able to do that much work in a day...)
So from the past few weeks' experience in General Relativity (also know affectionately as GR) it seems that the ratio in grad school is five hours of homework for each class. But who needs free time, anyway?
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The weather is getting cooler here, which means I have a limited time to use the flourishing herbs growing on my front porch. I can always think of things to make with basil, but the lavender is stumping me. I've got a recipe for a lemon lavender tart which sounds enticing, but does anyone have any additional ideas?

7 comments:

alexis said...

hrm, veggie medly with lavender mint and butter?

Anonymous said...

But if you do your homework faster and faster doesn't time actually slow down for those outside of your personal area of homeworking so that while you may have been working for 10 hours on the assignment to all those you left behind in fact only two hours may have elapsed?

Or is it the other way around and as you work faster, time goes by faster to those around you and when you are done, your niece will be in high school?

Rachel Scherr said...

In my garden at least, lavender is a perennial.

Gill - UK said...

Leave the lavender heads on the plants - don't prune back until Spring - that way the birds have extra rations.
If you want to Harvest - lavender bags! A quaint tradition of putting lavender seeds into fabric pouches, then depositing them in between the layers of clothes in your chests of drawers.

Matty Lau said...

The spice mix called "Herbes de Provence" typically has lavender in it. Another version of the tart is Lavendar Lemonade. You could also make lavendar chocolate chip or lavendar butter cookies (had those once in a specialty cookie shop and it was great). Sautee crispy green beads with lavender and some garlic (I like it but Jonathan isn't a big fan). I wonder if it would be good with potatoes... hmm...got some lavender in my own yard...

Bernice said...

Do you need to ask for a loan from your parents to cover the cost of the tutor? Or do you just need to bake more pies?

Ellie said...

I vote for the lavender bags Gill suggested. I got one as a present once, with a nice ribbon holding it shut and my initials stitched in. Very classy homemade gift!