Best Oatmeal Cookies and Apple Cake

Picture of the Day] Apple Cake!

Mood] Baked out

Weather] COLD

Currently] In my kitchen

Quote of the Day] "Adventure is just bad planning."

So of course off of one of my favourite food blog websites, I found an awesome recipe for Oatmeal Cookies. This is probably one of the easiest cookie recipes ever and since I had never made oatmeal cookies, it was fun to do it for the first time. I added TONS of raisins (the best part, right?) and enjoyed the crisp outer edge and chewy center! Apple cake on the other hand was a little bit more difficult and took a TON of apples. I did this mostly because I just had a freakin' ton of apples so I ended up making 2 whole 9" pans of apple cake. It was delicious, but I think I might prefer a crumble instead for once. It just wasn't firm enough for my taste. Don't know if I'll make that again, even though it tasted okay.

Side-note, had Five Guys the other day on the way back from my field trip to Alfred Caldwell Lily Pond for the first time and it was amazing! I think it was the most American food I have ever had. It is a burger joint and the brown bag they put my hamburger and fries in became totally soaked by the time I reached campus. I suppose that's how you know it's good, eh?

Food-ed,
Jaye

Discover IIT Day!

Picture of the Day] People at the Event!

Mood] Tired

Weather] Cool and sunny

Currently] In the basement

Quote of the Day] "The best way to try to motivate somebody is by being direct with them. To be honest with them. Lies are never the right way to get your message across."

Discover IIT Day was a blast! It was super busy because there were actually two events going on, one for Architecture and one for Undergraduate Admissions. We had a lot of families turn up for the event. The day was absolutely packed with tours, info sessions and mingling! The Discover Days are an awesome way to really preview the university and get a hold of what the campus is like. I had a lot of fun chalking up the sidewalks to welcome people to Hermann Hall! Also, I was really pleased because at the resource fair we had the Ambassador Scrapbook out on the table. Lots of compliments, so hooray! I was really happy to see all the new people interested in the school and the looks on their faces as they toured the campus. Probably the best part of the day is actually getting able to talk to people one on one. Unfortunately, my voice always gets tired out because of the tours! It was even worse because I sang with the girls group that night for acappella in Macy's. We did a few songs and it was pretty neat.

Fun fun times!
Jaye

Field Trip and Birthday Dinner!

Picture of the Day] Lake Point Tower and a delicious meal!

Mood] Wowed

Weather] Coooooolllld but sunny

Currently] In the basement

Quote of the Day] "If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things."

The Lake Point Tower was breath-taking! It was absolutely fabulous to be in the park and the apartment complex. The room was fantastic because it had such an amazing view. The furniture created little rooms within the large space and the whole area was decorated fully. The view was a complete 180 degrees because it was on the curve. The atrium, pool, garden, and play area that we visited were designed in a way that made each area quite separate, which could be considered a good and bad thing. The rock work and pool were definitely designed by Caldwell. The waterfall was very lovely and it was so peaceful. There were several key views as well as a set of grills in the middle of the council ring. I wish I could stay there and just relax! The plantings were blooming and the water was very serene. My group specifically studied the waterfall area, trying to distinguish the plants around it, the use of the waterfall, as well as the dimensions of the rocks. All in all, the field trip really made me want to live in Lake Point Tower when I get rich and famous.

Dinner was also delicious. I tried Weber Grill and it was great! The prime rib I had was a little salty, but it was good all the same. I also got a birthday flight of desserts! The Key Lime Cheesecake was my fave!

Whoo! More field-trips to come!
Jaye

October October!!!

Picture of the Day] My sister made me a birthday poster!

Mood] Sleepy

Weather] Cool and sunny

Currently] In my basement

Quote of the Day] "Love flies, runs, and rejoices; it is free and nothing can hold it back."

The first of October! WHOO! That signals a ton of things here on campus! The following and probably more:

1) Midterms (which I do have coming up)
2) October IIT Discover Day on the 16th!
3) My birthday
4) Halloween
5) Fall (one of my favourite times of the year because of all the leaves)

I have my studio midterm on Wednesday and I'm kind of freaking out. I need to make sure I have all sorts of drawings for my project in order to show what my design is like. I'll definitely post some up here for you to see too! :D

That's all for now,
Jaye

Music is awesome

Picture of the Day] An amusing sign I saw when I got take-out from Oodles of Noodles.

Mood] Very pleased

Weather] Relatively warm, 75 Degrees

Currently] In my room

Quote of the Day] "Rock and roll is the hamburger that ate the world."

Things are moving along quickly with class and otherwise. We've pumping through music at X-Chromotones rehearsal! It's awesome. In case you are just catching up with my blog, the X-Chromotones is an all-female acappella (singing) group here at IIT! :D I am currently musical director of said group, so I've been chugging through different music deciding what we can be singing for this semester! Since I finished arranging Won't Say I'm In Love, from Disney's Hercules (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_bEWXs_FX4), we've been working on that and it is pretty awesome. We have a soloist now and are just working on getting it all together (mostly memorized!) I hope that it all goes well.

Other songs on the agenda are Still Alive, from Portal the video game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI), Beyond the Sea, the Celtic Woman arrangement (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz_fcbKKmQA) and an original mash-up by one of our members, called Why Do you Let me Stay Here/Sexy Bitch. The last is comprised of these two songs: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkzRyHa9a6g&ob=av3e) and (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo_7bhk1UzA). I'll keep you updated as we go along!

CONCERT IN NOVEMBER!!! :D BE THERE.

Singed out!
Jaye

Fresh in the cIITy

Pictures of the Day] Party, Mind Games, Sack Race, Panorama of my location

Mood] Excited and Tired

Weather] Cool and incredibly windy

Currently] In my room

Quote of the Day] "You try to give away what you want yourself."

So Fresh in the Ciity was awesome fun. It was absolutely horrid weather to begin with. It rained until at least one or two in the afternoon, but then it was beautiful! The sun started coming out and everything. :) We began at Morton Park on campus (the one in front of VanderCook) and then we did a series of games to get the freshmen ready! They did a sack race, magic footprints, mind games, and then they grabbed a packet based on where they wanted to eat for lunch. Then, they were off! At each station (Navy Pier, The Loop, Mag Mile, Museum Campus, Lincoln Park Zoo, etc..) they had to perform a series of tasks and trivia to go on. They could answer as many questions as they wanted in order to get points.

I was stationed at Museum Campus. We had them create sand castles, take photos of different statues, answer trivia, and throw a frisbee. It was good fun and there was tons of teamwork. It's free for freshmen too! Free lunch, free dinner (we had vendors from all over the city come), and free cash prizes!!! It was great and although it was incredibly rainy, there was a good turn-out.

What a way to spend a Saturday!
REALLY tired,
Jaye

Site and Field Trip

Pictures of the Day] Panoramas!

Mood] BLAH

Weather] Cool and incredibly windy

Currently] In the basement

Quote of the Day] "My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?"

So we went on a field trip to Evanston Art Center as part of our assessment of a site possibly in need of preservation. The day was beautiful. It was bright and sunny, but very very windy. My allergies definitely flared up. Driving to Evanston took about 30-45 minutes. There was some construction along the way so I had to navigate around that, but otherwise it was a very lovely drive.

The Art Center itself was a very old building. It reminded me a lot of the Ecology Action Center in Bloomington-Normal. The interior has winding passages that are maze-like to different areas, most leading to what were servant quarters or store rooms. The grounds are very nice as well. There is an entrance to the beach area and also a park-like grove. The major problems with the site include an overgrowth of trees and brush that block the views to the lake and a drainage issue. There is a Jensen Council Ring that, partially embedded behind a slope, creates a dirt trail for runoff when it rains, which inevitably transforms into a flooding, water-fall effect.

This is the semester project for my Historic Landscape Preservation class, so we'll be learning a lot of skills in assessing the land and researching how to solve the problems. Hopefully a suitable, relatively reasonably priced solution will be reached.

Quite tired,
Jaye