Where on Earth is the Foodiva?

It has been a crazy month or so to say the least. Let's recount what has been going on during the past month or so:

1) A hop across the Atlantic for a whirlwind weekend Parisian trip with my dearest sis. I don't think I ever regained my normal footing after that; it's been insane since then. And I still have one more post on this trip!

2) Two different sets of college friends visiting over two different weekends. This was a total treat for me and I tried my best to minimize my work time during the weekends they were here. But that left me quite guilt-ridden for not working enough!

3) A departmental retreat at Wisconsin; just another excuse for grad students to party/get drunk/bond on the university's wallet. Another fun, boisterous weekend with no work getting done.

4) The incorporation of my business idea. My partner was actually the one who did most of the paperwork for our business and I'm so so so excited about this!!! I will definitely show off the website to you guys once it's up and running. Also, on this thread, I'm finally certified by the federal government and the Illinois state to handle food for sale! Yippee! The food sanitation class basically took two whole Saturdays of my life and I'm just so thankful it's done!

5) Training for the Soldier Field 10-mile. As if there's not enough on my plate, I have to be crazy enough to sign up for a 10-mile race with my friend. Actually, I'm kind of glad I did because now I have to get my butt of the couch and exercise!

6) Regular work. There's nothing regular about what I fondly refer to as "work" because even though my official title of grad student sounds all distringuished and noble and intellectual, nothing could be further from the truth. We're really just lab slaves in disguise. Paying us a meagre stipend that we have to pay taxes on (!), we easily spend 60 hours per week in lab. And then, when we get home, we'll be all guilt-ridden if we didn't spend some more time actually reading up and keeping up on the current research.

It's been crazy busy, but you know what? It's been fun too :)