The weekend has been far too short. That probably has something to do with the 60 hours I worked last week and the 10 hours I worked yesterday. The good news is that things could be a lot worse for me. I guess that being a member of the wealthiest society in the history of the earth has its advantages.

One of those advantages is abundant food. Today I made homemade granola, and it turned out fantastically. The secret, it turns out, is a fruit puree.

Recipe: mix together the following ingredients. For most items, I didn't really measure a quantity: just add as much as what tastes good to you.

6 cups rolled oats
2 cups whole almonds (then chop them)
honey (maybe 1/4 cup)
vanilla (maybe 1 tbs)
cinnamon (maybe 1 tsp)
brown sugar (maybe 1/4 cup)
fruit puree or apple sauce (maybe 1/4 - 1/2 cup)
optional: shaved coconut

Spread an even layer on wax paper on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 until the mixture starts to brown (maybe 15 - 20 minutes). Mine smoked a little but never burned. I wouldn't worry about smoke. It probably won't hurt you very much. Anyway, remove it from the oven and let it cool. As it cools, the granola will dry out further and become crunchy and truly fantastic. Once completely cool, add dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, whatever) or chocolate chips (my favorite) or whatever you want. DO NOT OMIT THE FRUIT PUREE. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container or ziploc bag. Supposedly it will last for a long time, but I think you'll eat it long before then.

I've been working a lot the last few weeks, just trying to stay on top of all the research we're doing this semester in the lab. Some of the projects we're working on may turn out the be interesting, but the results are pretty inconclusive at this point.

I like my classes pretty well so far this semester. My favorite so far is probably neuroscience. All the things we're learning so far are somewhat related to what you learn in 10th grade biology (e.g., how DNA works), but everything seems pretty new. I'm not sure if I'd like it quite so much without the professor, who is probably one of the best I've ever had.

That is all.

From the "police beat" of my hometown newspaper:

NORTH BRANCH — North Branch Police took at (sic) 27-year-old man into custody Jan. 15 for reportedly violating a personal protection order after his ex- told police he tried to run her Comet off North Branch Road with his Saturn.

 Tried to run her Comet off the road with his Saturn? Is that some sort of innuendo, or did you grow up in space?

News headline today: "Experts: Sitting too much could be deadly." Sounds scary. As it turns out, the research says, those who sit those most tend to be the fattest. And those who are the fattest tend to have heart disease. And those who tend to have heart disease tend to die. Therefore, sitting makes you die. And I don't want to die!!

Screeeeeeech! Wait a second! If sitting makes you die, what about reclining!?!?! What about laying down?!?!?!?!? I like laying down!!!!

Maybe we should think a little more critically about this. I wonder if there's anything special about sitting that leads to heart disease? Maybe, but it's more likely that the problem is simply that sitting a lot really reduces the number of calories you burn during the day. It's this reduction that leads to heart disease, which leads to death. It's much simpler, then, to stop fear-mongering and say that heart disease, caused by eating too much (shocker!!!), can lead to an untimely death.

How about this for a headline: "Researcher extracts head from butt, remembers that correlation isn't causation, redacts misleading conclusion, suggests instead that eating proper amounts of food extends life."

I guess that would be a little too wordy.

The weather down here was fantastic this weekend. I think it got up to almost 70 today, and it's likely to be even warmer tomorrow. We took Barney to an off-leash dog park yesterday so he could expend some of his copious energy. He sprinted around for an hour straight, running from person to person and dog to dog, trying to make friends and get someone to chase him but never stopping long enough to actually make it happen.

I managed to spend most of the weekend relaxing. I only read two chapters out of my neuroscience textbook and then took the rest of the weekend off. This is something I could definitely get used to. Too bad every week isn't as laid back as the first week of a semester. That's all for now.