home stretch

It's crunch time right now... less than a month to go til I'm done with school! It's been consuming my life so I'm really excited about the end being near. I started my final class- Managerial Economics- in Rochester this weekend. It's 450 miles round trip so it's a bit time consuming but it's the last one! And, my favorite teacher of all time is teaching it:)

I sort of had an "A-ha" moment this weekend... I really love that my job does not require regular travel. Solo traveling is rather lonely and sorta stressful. I was sure wishing I had an iPhone and the Hubs with me. I had to print out all my directions (Duluth to UM-Rochester, UM-Rochester to hotel, etc) and rely on crappy hotel wi-fi to find a good place to eat. Sadly, most of the restaurants in Rochester are chains (no gourmet sandwich shops!) so I had to "settle" for Chipotle. I managed to find a Caribou Coffee close to my hotel for the a.m. I slept like crap in the hotel due to 1) thin walls/noisy neighbors and 2) my inability to set the hotel alarm clock! Gosh, it kept blaring music while I was trying to set it. I don't trust my cell phone alarm clock so I was literally up every half hour during the night checking the clock. I justified in my head why an iPhone would be good for me:
-GPS (no need to print directions & ability to re-route)
- Caribou Coffee locator (gotta have good coffee in the morning)
-Reliable internet to search for good/healthy food (hate eating fast food)
-Wells Fargo ATM locator to get cash for parking (hate paying ATM fees even more)
-Could have checked Mapquest to find out commuting times from hotel to the U... was up early to allow enough time. iPhone= more sleep

Must get a Smart phone!! I've got 2 more trips to Rochester- April 23-24 and May 7-8. Sadly, I won't be getting a new phone prior to these trips but I can keep dreaming...

We've been on-the-go so much lately that I don't have any good eats to show you. I did take a couple hours last weekend to do one of my favorite things.... bake cookies!
I used up the last of the Dove dark chocolates:

The best advice:
Some of my favorite baking things:
-MaraNatha peanut butter (just peanuts & salt... nothing else)
-Nielson-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract (the best!)
-Farm fresh eggs from Carlton, MN (2o mins outside of Duluth)
-Mikey's knife (shh... don't tell him I used it):
All whipped up (thanks to the KitchenAid... how did I ever go so long without one?) and ready for the oven:
Experimenting with the focus on the DSLR:
Mmmmm..... Mandy's Thunder Cookies (Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies):
My helper was close by to clean up any spills:
The batch made 3 dozen cookies. Half of them went straight to the freezer and the other half is in the cookie jar. These are NOT part of my healthy baking goal but sometimes you just gotta bring on the goodness.

I've probably mentioned this before, but if I could bake "healthified" cookies and muffins for a job while maintaining the lifestyle I desire, it would be my dream!