i haven't QUITE fallen off the face of the earth

so, school is hard. i'm kind of in hiding right now. i will surface soon. i promise. until then, here's a lovely pic of my and my buddies from school.

anne is in the back; stacy and jeff are on the right.

happy (ugh) new year...

so, thrilling start to the new year. back at school. two tests down. fire in the church across the street...http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-060106fire,1,5281826.story?coll=chi-news-hed
terrible stuff. luckily no one was in the church, so the only injuries were some firefighters who had heat exhaustion or inhalation injuries (i think). the church is directly across the street from the residence hall for my school. luckily only 18 of the ~150 residents got displaced.
in other news...um, well i really don't have any other news.

Uber Yummy Pumpkin Cookies from Cookiefest 2005

Shout out to Lauren H - New Addition to Cookiefest 2005 - this was sooo yummy!!

Pumpkin cookies with icing

Cookies:
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup reg pumkin pack (like Libby's)
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup golden raisins
Cream together shortening, sugar and pumpkin. Add egg and mix well. Mix together dry ingredients and blend with the wet ingredients. Stir in raisins with a spoon. Batter should be fluffy and WILL NOT TASTE GOOD. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 375 degrees. Bake 9-12 minutes. Use about 1 TBSP of batter per cookie. Cook until the edges turn brown. Cookies must be fully cooked.

Icing:
3/4 tsp vanilla
3 TBSP real butter
4 tsp milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
Dissolve butter, milk and brown sugar in a saucepan on fairly low heat.Stir in vanilla and powdered sugar and keep warm on lowest heat. Drizzleon cookies while they are still hot on the cookie sheet.