Phew!!

it's taken me long enough but i think my kitchen is finally okay to show y'all. when we moved in the previous owners had a lot of green accents throughout the house so the kitchen color made sense with their design scheme (real estate listing pic).

when our stuff moved in, the color stuck out a little (and a bomb went off obviously)...

i debated and debated on what direction I wanted to go with the paint colors. i posted lots of pictures.  ultimately, i decided to go w/ my gut, even though it scared me, and go greige on the cabinets and a darker greige on the walls.  here is the picture that inspired my kitchen:

and now, here is my kitchen....and i can officially say i love her!

thanks so much for all of your help- for convincing me to take a leap and not stick w/ white.  i am one happy camper.  next on my list is to find a good, faded oushak rug to plop in front of the sink :)

Gluten-Free January Raffle!

Hi, Gluten-Free January participants. Matt, Janine and I have collected about 200 survey responses at this point. So far, the results are very interesting! But we want to get as many responses as possible, because the more responses we get, the more informative the data will be for all of us. So please fill out the survey Matt sent you by e-mail, no matter what your results were, and no matter whether you stuck with the diet or not! The survey is strictly about your GFJ experience, not investment opportunities, timeshares, ShamWows or anything else. It will take you less than 5 minutes, and it's totally anonymous. The deadline is Feb 15th. Big thanks to everyone who has taken it so far.

To encourage participants to complete the survey, we're organizing a raffle. Matt and I have five Gluten-Free January T-shirts we're ready to give out for free. These shirts were designed by Matt and they're really cool. I have one myself, and the print and fabric quality are top notch. Here's what the logo looks like:
If you've completed the survey and want to be included in the raffle, please e-mail Matt to let him know you've completed it. Anyone who has already e-mailed Matt to let him know they completed the survey will automatically be entered, so no need for a second e-mail. So far, very few people have written Matt, so your probability of winning a shirt is high!

Punch Beating

Recently, two different people have told me they were all excited about a revolutionary new idea, went to the literature to read about it, and found someone had already invented it.

I said: "Great!"

They said: "Great?"

I say "great!" for several reasons:

1) You clearly had a great idea if somebody else already came up with it.
2) You are capable of lots and lots of great ideas and will have more
2.1) People who only have one great idea usually have very dull careers following their accolade.
3) At least you didn't spend five years building something you were hoping to patent only to find out it exists and is currently being sold in three countries.

In my area of research, I am always delighted to learn somebody has studied one of my ideas, particularly if they've done a satisfactory job of exploring it, because it means I can spend time more working on other ideas.

Anyway, I'm sure there is some good research-zen koan for this one. Maybe... hold each idea in your hand like a grain of sand, cling too tightly and someone else will patent it.