Dan
Emily's New Blog
To see DIGITAL PHOTOS follow the link from Dan's
website. (This is a link TO Dan's website). Life in
Princeton
November 23, 2003
Dan and I have been very busy lately. Let's
see - we're now part of a supper club (a group which meets to eat dinner together on about a
monthly basis - each couple brings a different part of the dinner) with other
grad-student-apartment-dwellers at Princeton. Through the club, we met a couple with a
one-year-old son and we were able to briefly stop by his b-day party Saturday. :-) Nice change
of pace! We are getting involved in our church and really are delighted with it. The focus is on
strong Biblical teaching through expository preaching. Today was "Thanks Living Day" and there
was a strong outreach message coupled with a Thanksgiving-style meal afterwards.
We watched another great movie last night, "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." We highly recommend
it! (Dan doesn't like musicals in general, but he even liked it! It had great humor which we
appreciated.) Work has been busy and the server is back up (it broke about two weeks ago) so I am
very thankful for that.
November 10, 2003
Dan and I discovered an interesting phenomenon last time we washed our
sheets and blanket and forgot to use fabric softener: bed lightening! It
is easy if you have really staticy sheets - just pull the sheets and
blanket apart and run your fingers down the blanket in the dark. You
should see lightening-like sparks coming from your blanket!
This has been a wonderful and relaxing weekend (which is why Dan is
currently scurrying to finish some things for today). For the last month
or so, Dan has spent at least a few hours at work on Saturdays. This
weekend, instead, we spent Saturday garage-saling in the morning (no good
finds), then geocaching, and later watching the movie "The Gods Must Be
Crazy." Dan went to watch the lunar eclipse at Princeton Battlefield and
I stayed home and warm. We later discovered that it was quite visible
from our bedroom window.
Sunday we went to Calvary Baptist
again and then were invited to lunch with a bunch of other people around
our age. We were there until about 4 pm! Check out Reformed Praise for music by the
church's music leader and a bit about the church's take on musical praise.
We went back again for the evening service which has an Old Testament
focus. The morning service is more (at least currently) New Testament
focused.
November 7, 2003
Jenny Smith visited us last night! She's here in
Princeton visiting Princeton Theological Seminary! I also made zucchini bread. Dan and I
have been trying to be less wasteful, so when we discovered that our milk had soured yesterday
morning, Dan suggested I find a couple of recipes which use sour milk. Searching on AllRecipes.com, I found recipes for breakfast zucchini
muffins and for banana bread. Since I had gone crazy buying bananas when they were priced at
3lbs/$1, we needed to get rid of bananas, too. I found zucchini on the "use it tonight!" stand at
ShopRite for half off - so now we have a delicious loaf of zucchini bread (don't own any muffin
tins) to replace our cereal until we have sweet milk again.
The weather seems to not be able to make up its mind. Earlier this week it was almost balmy, this
weekend the low is supposed to be around 25 F. The only thing it seems determined to do is to
drench all involved - to say it has been raining cats and dogs is quite an understatement.
Adjusting to this new weather is strange. We brought in the front seat car rugs last night to
attempt to dry them out and each time we decide we really ought to wash our car, it gets pounded
with waters from above.
November 2, 2003
Our living room had a wall lined with boxes until last night. I'd been growing more and more
frustrated with the boxes recently. I want a place to put china and such, but we haven't been
able to find an appropriate cabinet second-hand yet. Last night, due to an earlier conversation
with my parents, I had a revelation: instead of getting frustrated with the boxes, I could use
them, still full, to "construct" pieces of furniture we still hope to acquire. The boxes of china
were stacked already in two low piles, but now the piles are covered with a flowy-white cloth
and place mats on top making it look like a low side-table. (don't worry - it is out of the way
and perfectly safe.) In the center of the room, two boxes filled with sturdy things are covered
by a curtain (thanks Rich and Veronica!) and some overlapping placemats to form a coffee table.
The small boxes I put behind the bed. I moved the couch around, swept the floor, rearranged the
dining area and suddenly the place seems a lot more homey! We hopefully will put up some pictures
soon, but no promises.
November 1, 2003
Dan, Michelle, and I went garage saling this morning! The fall weather is on the warm side of
cool so it was a beautiful and comfortable morning for garage sales. We bought a hose so that we
can wash our (badly in need of it) car - our apartment complex has a spigot but no hose. I'm
trying to learn to buy things which simplify my life long-term instead of spending money on things
which only save time once. For example, I could go to the car wash once for $10 or so. After
that one wash, the car would get dirty again and I would eventually need to get it washed again.
Instead, if I spend the money on a hose (which - if you get it at a garage sale is *much* less
than $10) and use some of our old T-shirts as rags, I've made purchases which solve the problem
long-term.
Dan and I did make one impulse buy - we bought a big bag of Duplo. :-) I grew up playing with
Duplo and my sister was a Duplo fanatic. We don't plan to have children for a while, but a big
bag of Duplo for $3 - who could turn that down???
October 30, 2003
This is a good week! Dan and I made meatloaf last night using the Best Recipe cookbook
(this is the best cookbook ever!) and Michelle brought dinner over on Monday. The time change has
me all mixed up - I'm used to leaving work as the sun is setting so it has confused me to have the
sun set when I still need to keep working for a while. Today was better since I spent all
afternoon in a windowless room (yes - windowless rooms can be a blessing!) so I didn't get quite
so antsy. It has been quite rainy and a few flood watches were issued, but our area has only been
wet, not soaked.
October 26, 2003
Thank you all for your cards and pryaers - I
really appreciate it! I seem to be restored to health now and worked a full 40 hours last week.
Dan and I took a long walk yesterday (since during the week I'm only outside for the walk to and
from my car) and visited the graduate apartment "fall festival" where we decorated cookies and met
a few people.
Today, we trekked all the way to Pennsylvania for church. We went to a large baptist church with
connected seminary. I had met one of the pastors when I was in Germany and he and his family
were there as missionaries a while back (and had received his prayer letters for years) so, since
we are now less than an hour away, Dan and I decided to visit there this week. First, we went to
a "Newlyweds" class for people married 5 years or less and then we sat with the family I knew for
the service. This is interesting - the church has about 1200 in attendance, but they've chosen to
have a large auditorium and only one service. The family invited us over to lunch after church
and it was great! The man and wife, Jeff and Gayle, had their son and daughter-in-law, Ben and
Sara, as well as their two sons, Andy (5) and Jeffrey (3), all over. It was Jeffrey's birthday,
so there was singing of happy birthday and opening of presents. It was really neat to be part of
it and to enjoy fellowship with other Christians.
October 18, 2003
Three weeks into mono, a new doctor, and some relief. I've only been working about 30 hours per
week but my employer has been really accomodating. I don't know much about herbal remedies and am
a big fan of FDA approval, but when I found out that the number one suggestion for a sore throat
was my favorite type of tea, licorice, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and buy a box of
licorice tea. Weirdly enough, it only came (at the grocery store we went to) in a box labeled,
"Throat Tea." But - underneath - it was licorice tea. :-)
Dan and I are still church-searching. We blindly went to First Baptist of Princeton last week and
found that it was a very charismatic black baptist church. As an older black woman remarked to us
after the service, "That was quite an experience for you, wasn't it?" The praise was hopping, the
choir danced/sashayed down the aisle, and all visitors stood up to be introduced. It was a neat
experience, but not the place for me and Dan to end up.
God is so good! I have gotten so frustrated being sick and home and not knowing people. Today,
FOUR (!!!) cards came in the mail for me wishing me a swift recovery. I was so happy I started
crying. You know who you are - that was really what I needed. Thank you so much for blessing me
in that way.
Weather update according to weather.com on Friday, October 17:
Pasadena daily high: 83
Princeton daily high: 53
Note a difference?
October 11, 2003
Two weeks into mono. Today the tiredness hit me and I felt like Dorothy in the field of golden
poppies. "Sleep, sleep," the wicked witch of the west chants, and Dorothy does sleep until
Glenda the good witch causes snow to fall on Dorothy and her band of travelers. So, there
weren't any poppies but there was a purple-flowered quilt, and Dan replaced the snow with a
husband-style wake up and the promise of making dinner.
Speaking of dinner, Dan's skills have grown by leaps and bounds this week. I've been so out of
it that I couldn't cook at all, and he did a great job. Tonight we had Korean-style beef
stir-fry beef with rice and biscuits. It was pretty good!
The weather warmed up some (no jacket in the morning, but weather.com says that is going to
change soon) but I've been staying inside all the time anyways, so it doesn't matter
much.
October 3, 2003
It is starting to get chilly here! I looked out from my window today at work around
lunch time and saw two women power walking together, both wearing jackets and
gloves. A tree across the parking lot from my office has a small red spike of
branches sticking out from its top. The men at work are talking about the baseball
playoffs and I can see my breath as I walk out to the car in the morning. Dan told
me that's just what October is like and that you can easily remember it by saying
"Octo-brrrrr." Silly Dan!
The mono test came back today positive - so at least that explains my low energy level
and other related symptoms. Dan is wonderful and we've been using this opportunity for
me to teach him to cook. The first day I came home feeling sick we ended up eating out
because I was sick enough to not want to cook but not so much so to not want to eat.
The next day I didn't cook or eat and I don't remember about Dan. Then, Dan went out
and bought a bunch of frozen food. By Tuesday I was feeling well enough to introduce
him to a quick and easy recipe. I think I'll try to stick in one such recipe a week.
:-)
September 30, 2003
Last day of September and a month and one day in our new apartment. I've been sick for the past
few days and even stayed home from work, but am feeling better than yesterday - a big praise.
Dan's classes are getting challenging (a bunch of programming in his assignments - and that adds
up in time!). I feel like a computer nerd now as I learn new things about how to work with
various computer systems and programs each day. I like it. But I need sleep. Lots of
sleep.
Dan and I visited a small Baptist church a bit away from Princeton on Saturday, as recommended
by Bookman. We might go there again next week.
September 19, 2003
This makes two weeks at my new job and I'm liking it a lot. I'm working
as an engineer doing a lot of data analysis. Whee! Dan and I took a
canoe ride up the canal and river about 100 yards from where we live. Of
course we got rained on - it rains here a lot! I feel like quoting the
New Zealand poem: "And after a drought of half an hour, we had the most
delightful shower." Well, it isn't quite that rainy, but almost.
There was a welcome dinner last night for the apartment building with a
"south" theme: "southern" Indian food and "southern" fried chicken! Dan
and I were able to meet some people and have some different food. We had
Michelle and her sweetie over for dinner the night before that and are
going to out neighbor's for dinner early next week. We're starting to get
to know some people.
Dan's starting to really get into studying - reading papers, doing a
problem set, figuring out what some computer code does - and it means that
now I have to wake him up in the morning instead of him waking me up
(which had happened the first two weeks of living here).
September 9, 2003
Dan and I have been married for one month now! I just started my new job
and Dan picked up books today for his first grad classes! Whee!
September 7, 2003
We've been in Princeton just a week and it is amazing how God is providing
furniture for us! We traveled to the Atlantic Ocean (my first time!) on
Thursday and spent Friday in NYC. We've been spending a good part of each
day settling into the apartment but then looking for diversions for other
parts of the day (Friday was an all day diversion).
I'm currently reading the unabridged version of Robinson Crusoe. Dan and
I have been having very late night talks about it. It makes me
think.
I start work tomorrow!
September 1, 2003
Dan and I moved to Princeton on Friday.
We have an apartment full of piles. Dan taped label to the wall around
the living room with words such as "Closet", "Shoes", "Academic books",
"Papers" and so on. Since we don't have any furniture besides a bed, we
decided to unpack boxes "into" the labeled areas. At least it should help
us determine what furniture would be useful and what would be excessive.
We have the mattress in the living room and the bed in pieces in the
bedroom.
The apartment is perfectly located - on the first floor, (numbered in the
German way: Ground floor then first floor, so we are on the "American"
second floor) - but the building is on a hill, so the back exit of the
first floor is at ground level. However, our apartment is about 14 feet
above ground level and we have a nice view of the forest. This morning,
we could hear the nearby river rushing after the rain from last
night.
I've been using wedding gifts. I made chocolate chip cookies last night
to "christen" the apartment and whole wheat nut waffles for lunch because
we didn't buy much meat at the grocery store. The kitchen has a
beautiful brand-new gas stove - it is great.
Dan and I are planning on going to Home Depot today. E-mail me if you'd
like our address. We plan to get a telephone number tomorrow.