Book Review: The Lost Symbol

I was a big fan of Dan Brown's Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code, although I didn't see either of the movies (mental note: add those to our netflix queue). So, I was pretty excited that he had another book coming out that featured the great Robert Langdon.

Mr. H got the book for me as a first anniversary gift. It's the paper year, and I thought it was the perfect interpretation of a paper gift.

This was back in September, and I just got around to reading it a few weeks ago. At the time I got the book, I still hadn't taken the GMAT, so I felt guilty about reading for pleasure. After I took the test on January 23rd, the first think I picked up when I got home was this book.

I'd like to say I didn't put it back down again until it was finished, but that wasn't the case. I'm just not the type of person that can read and read and read for hours on end until I finish a book. First of all, I'm a slow reader. Second, if I don't get enough sleep every night, I get cranky. So, my reading pretty much took place during my commute to and from work. This meant 15-page increments at a time, with a few evenings of reading when Mr H was in class. It took me 2 weeks, but I finally finished.

And, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I still like Angels & Demons better, but I think this one ties with The Da Vinci Code. Mostly because it takes place in Washington DC, and I can relate much more easily with the landmarks.

The Lost Symbol took me through all kinds of emotions. Fear, grief, surprise, anger and relief. Brown does such a good job of describing his scenes that it's so very easy to place yourself in them as a spectator, although a helpless one.

I was slightly disappointed in the ending. It seemed a bit rushed, and it didn't to do the rest of the book justice, but that's all I'll say about that.

It's probably inevitable that they'll make a movie out of this book, too. And, while I haven't even seen the other films to know what their style was like, I'm anticipating this one to have a very Silence of the Lambs-type feel to it.

If you liked Dan Brown's other books, then you're already invested in Robert Langdon, and you can't leave him hanging now. The Lost Symbol is definitely worth reading.

Eggplant and Roses

The husband and I have rarely made a big deal out of Valentine's Day. With my birthday in January and our (old) anniversary in March, it just seemed too much. So, we don't go gifts or anything extravagant. But, we both love good food, so a nice dinner out is always our preferred way to celebrate the occasion.

This year, we literally waited until the last minute to decide on our plans. Would we eat in? Order in? Go out? As we were driving back from West Lafayette on Sunday morning, we decided we'd go out. Mr. H really wanted to go to Cafe Orchid, which is a great Turkish restaurant right around the corner from our apartment. We haven't been there in a while, so I immediately agreed. We didn't have a reservation, but luckily we stopped by early enough to get a table before the place started to fill up.

The restaurant was decorated for the holiday with balloons and flower petals everywhere. It was really nice. And, I was given a red rose when I sat down at the table!

Unfortunately, the place was a bit too dark (and small) to discreetly take any photos of our yummy food.

We started with 2 appetizers. The cold one was babaganoush, which is an eggplant puree, mixed with various seasonings like garlic, lemon, cumin. In Turkey, it's called patlıcan salatası, which means eggplant salad.

The hot appetizer was fried calamari. You can't go wrong there. If you've never had calamari, you're missing out.

Then, we ordered an entree. We decided to pick 1 and share, because we also wanted to order dessert. Or at least, I wanted to order dessert. Mr. H let me pick out the entree because I'm a bit more familiar with Turkish cuisine than he is. I wanted to pick something he hadn't had before, so I went with Hünkar Beğendi (pronounced "HOONkar BAYendi"). It means Sultan's Delight, and it is another eggplant dish.

The eggplant in this dish is prepared very similarly to babaganoush, but it's mixed with cheese that's sort of like a mild white cheddar. (The same cheese that's often used in Saganaki, yum.) The eggplant mixture is the base of this dish. It is topped with a lamb stew, cubes of lamb cooked to perfection with a delicious, slightly spicy stew sauce. Mr. H loved it.

Finally, we were ready for dessert. I had been waiting for this part of the meal since we decided to eat at Cafe Orchid. We ordered Künefe, which is like a large piece of shredded wheat with a layer of melted cheese (think mozzarella) in the middle, covered with a simple syrup and served with a dollop of kaymak cream (think mascarpone cheese). It is heaven.

We had planned to go out for some drinks after dinner, but we were too full, and Mr. H had to go to work the next day (he works for a German company that doesn't care to celebrate our past presidents' birthdays). So, we went home and watched some pairs figure skating. It was a perfect end to a perfect Valentine's Day.

If only the GMAT was enough

Remember way back last year when I said I was going to take the GMAT? First, I was going to take it in August, then September, then December. So, when January rolled around and I still hadn't taken the test, I figured I should just sign up, even if I wasn't quite ready. There is nothing as motivating as having paid $250 to take a test on a specific date to get your butt in gear and actually do some meaningful studying.

I gave myself three weeks, and I studied a couple hours every day. This was, of course, on top of the studying I had done sporadically during 2009. I started with a practice test, and I did really well, a 710 (out of a 800)! I felt great about that score, so the pressure wasn't quite as bad anymore. I brushed up on some areas where I struggled. Then, a few days before the exam, I took another practice test. I got a 680. While I was disappointed that the score was lower than the first one, I attributed it to less than ideal testing conditions. I felt pretty ready for the actual exam.

On test day, I was feeling extra nervous. Thankfully, my test time was noon instead of 8am. It started with the 2 essays. A half hour for each. I spent the first 5 minutes writing out a quick outline, the next 20 minutes actually writing my essay, then the last 5 minutes proof-reading. I knew when I was done that I had nailed those essays. But, I'm an engineer so, I was glad I had finally arrived at the math portion.

After I saw the first problem, I wished I could go back to my essays. The math portion has 37 problems, and it's 75 minutes. This means you can spend, on average, about 2 minutes per problem. Well, the first one was about the quadratic equation, and it's solutions. I know the formula for the 2 solutions of the quadratic equation like the back of my hand. But that's not what the problem was asking. It wanted to know something else, another formula that I didn't bother to remember because it can be derived from the formula I do know. The issue, it was going to take me more than 2 minutes to figure it out. I thought I could make up the time on other problems because surely there would be easier questions that wouldn't take me a full 2 minutes to solve. But, I got hit with a lot of problems that would take longer than 2 minutes. At the end, I had to blindly guess at 3 questions because I had 40 seconds left. Ugh, I felt sick. I'm supposed to be good at math!

I took the optional 8-minute break and tried to forget about the last 75 minutes. I still had another section - verbal. I drank some water and ate some crackers, then I went back into the testing room. Luckily, the verbal section was not nearly as painful. And, I still had 2 minutes to spare when I was done.

Then, came the part of the test where you see your score (if you decide to have the test scored, but after spending that money and time, I wasn't about to throw it away). I clicked the "Yes" button to the question that asked if I wanted to report my score, and I saw....

.......

..... a 660. I had decided before the test that my goal was a 650. For my top choice business school, I figured a 650 was the lowest score I could get and feel totally confident about my acceptance. Their middle-80% of accepted GMAT scores range from 590-640. So, I should have been happy about a 660. And, I was, sort of. It puts me in the 82nd percentile, meaning that I scored better than 82% of the people who have taken the GMAT in the last 3 years. That's not so bad. But my math score was just so disappointing. I shouldn't have been surprised. I knew I froze. But, there's no going back, and it's definitely not worth another $250 to try again. So, it's time move forward and actually apply to schools.

Now, I'm writing essays, requesting transcripts and asking for letters of recommendation. All for the opportunity to go to graduate school.

Which really makes me think of this clip from The Simpsons:




Or, maybe I'll win the lottery in the next few months, and I won't have to worry about it!

Florida Fun

About a month ago, Mr. H and I spent a weekend in Tampa. It was such a great weekend because the weather was practically perfect in Florida and Chicago was having their first real taste of winter.

I was actually in Florida for a whole week because I had to go there for work (no complaining here!). Mr. H flew down on Friday and we went back home on Sunday night.

I realized I could never actually live in Florida, though, because they have giant birds that are always just walking around.

One of the best parts of the weekend was when we went down to Clearwater beach for sunset. There was a group of people playing with the 2 cutest puppies alive along the shore, and then I saw dolphins jumping in and out of the water! I felt like I was all of a sudden living in a Lisa Frank scene.

On Sunday, before we went to the airport, we had an urge to go mini-golfing. So, we looked in the GPS and found a nearby place. It was a pretty neat course. And there were tiny anoles everywhere! Plus, I beat Mr. H so I had a lot of fun. =)

It was nice to miss the first big winter weather of the season, but winter, unfortunately, lasts much longer than 1 week at home. With the weather being so ridiculously cold right now, I'm thinking the large birds might not be such a bad trade off.

High Maintenance Cat

Once upon a time, my cat Zoey used to have a really nice cat bed, but I don't think she ever once slept in it. Her sleep is very important to her, and she needs to make sure she's completely comfortable, which can be quite difficult for a cat. Recently, I started paying attention to the spots that she deems suitable, and I can totally see now why that cat bed was just not good enough.

She apparently likes to sleep....

Under the Christmas tree.

On a blanket we use to muffle the noise from the heater.

On a chair that's missing its cushion.

Even on a plastic bag.

Thanks, Zoey, for showing me the way.

Chocolate Biscotti

To me, biscotti always seemed like something that you only buy because it would be too difficult to try making it at home and there was no way it could turn out as nicely.

Boy was I wrong!

We got Mr. H's dad and step-mom a coffee maker for Christmas, and I thought some biscotti to go with it would be a good addition. Mr. H suggested we try making the biscotti, so I did a bit of research and found this recipe. It's basically Martha Stewart's recipe with some adjustments to the directions. I also left out the hazelnuts because Mr. H's step-mom is allergic.

The dough was really easy to put together, but I was a little confused about shaping the logs.

This was my attempt. They were okay, but a little bit flatter than I would have liked.

But once I started cutting them, they looked much better!

It was actually looking like biscotti!

And they tasted SO yummy!

We made these on Christmas eve, and I really didn't have the time to wait for any sort of chocolatey drizzle to set, so I skipped it. Maybe next time, because there will be a next time.

Ringing in 2010

Ready or not 2010 is here. If your neck is already sore from all the looking back and looking forward that you've been doing, I'm sorry I won't be any help.

The past year went by so fast. Overall, it was a pretty mellow year. But there were a few exciting things that happened.
These were my favorite parts of 2009:
* Mr. H and I rang in the new year in the Dominican Republic on our honeymoon.
* I went to our annual Girly Get-Together with some of my college friends in Southern California.
* Mr. H and I made all kinds of yummy goodies.
* We moved to a new apartment with a 2nd bedroom AND a dishwasher!
* We went to Lollapalooza, and it rocked!
* We celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary.
* I got a promotion and stopped traveling all the time for work!
* We went to Istanbul to visit my family for Thanksgiving.
* We went to Tampa for a quick trip in mid-December to get away from the Chicago winter.
* We had many wonderful Christmases with Mr. H's families and mine.

I realize that the last few items on that list don't have blog posts about them. This not traveling all the time for work has really cut into my blogging time. But, I'm really enjoying spending the evenings with my husband. In 2010, I'll do a better job of using the nights when Mr. H is in class to get caught up.

There are a lot of other things I'm looking forward to in 2010, too.
Here are the things I'm most excited about:
* Hopefully, we will be purchasing our first home.
* Mr. H will graduate from business school and I will start business school.
* My uncle and aunt will have twin boys!!

And, here are some things I want to accomplish:
* Lose weight. I haven't done so well the last few months with Weight Watchers, but the holidays are over and I need to get back on track.
* Take the GMAT and get accepted to a school. If I want to start school in the fall, this obviously needs to happen first.
* Take lots of vacations. I get an additional 5 days this year. I plan to take advantage of them.

I know the 2010 lists look a little small, but that's what I like about it. I think 2010 is going to be a great year us, and I hope it's a great year for you too!