Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

4-Season Pizza Romano
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8 mushrooms, sliced
2 tsp olive oil
salt
4 oz mozzarella, slicd
6 baby artichokes, sliced
8 slices prosciutto
6 black olives, chopped
4 squares focaccia
1 roma tomato, diced
black pepper and oregano

Trim mushroom stems and slice. Sauté in olive oil until golden. Lightly salt. Slice focaccia in half horizontally. Drizzle insides with olive oil. Keep all ingredients 1/2 inch from edges. Layer ingredients between slices of focaccia. Grill in skillet. Makes 4 sandwiches.

Chicken and Peperonata on Rosemary Bread
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2 chicken breasts
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper
rosemary
2 TBS olive oil
Chili Powder
1 small onion, sliced
1 red and 1 yellow pepper, sliced
6 black olives
1 TBS capers
8 large slices rosemary bread
2 garlic cloves, cut in half
8 basil leaves

Boil chicken in water, salt, pepper and rosemary. Sauteé onion in olive oil with chili powder; add peppers and cook until peppers are tender. Near the end of cooking, stir in olives and capers, season with salt and pepper. Slice each chicken breast into three fillets. Toast bread on both sides. Cover with garlic, chicken and pepper mixture. Cover with basil and pepper. Makes 4 sandwiches.

Avocado and Goat Cheese Crostini
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1 avocado
5 1/2 oz goat cheese
1 tsp olive oil
1 TBS lemon juice
salt and pepper
24 baguette slices

Mash avocado, add goat cheese, olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Don’t mix completely. Brush bread with oil. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Add avocado mixture after.

Chicken and Salsa Verde Panini
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2 chicken breasts
3 sprigs sage
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper
3/4 cup parsley
7 green olives, chopped
2 TBS capers, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tsp lemon zest
3 TBS olive oil
3 TBS lemon juice
1 loaf ciabatta

Boil chicken in garlic and sage with water. Stir other ingredients in a bowl. Slice each chicken breast into three fillets. Divide ciabatta into two pieces. 3/4 of the Salsa Verde on the bottom half of the sandwich, chicken on top and then last 1/4 on top of the chicken. Top with bread. Makes six sandwiches

Tip: Try replacing the capers with a slice of swiss cheese! It's delicious!

First brief edit of the KONP. I'm playing this for style. Brief one minute teaser to show battle sequence.

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Originally Rebecca was supposed to be gone from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday night. She is interviewing with a company called TellMe and they offered to fly her out to San Jose. Tuesday afternoon, she was interviewing over the phone with Stanford's NLP group and they wanted to see her in person as well, so we worked it out so that she could stay an extra day in order to make it to both interviews [with Stanford reimbursing the cost to extend the trip]. This was the first time we've been apart since we got married, so it was stressful and emotionally difficult [for both of us!]. I just have gotten so used to having Rebecca around that it isn't easy to be away from her.

This is interesting because so many people I know see their spouse so little. I find it a great blessing to be able to spend so much time with my best friend. Although I know this won't necessarily last, it is definitely a wonderful thing for now.  read more »

That's what this week felt like. I've worked pretty much all day all week on my thesis, trying desparately to get better results than what I'm getting. But it looks in the end like I just need more data (examples of paraphrases) to train my models better. I guess 4000 pairs of sentences just aren't enough examples!  read more »

I always have hated radio stations. I can't stand TV either. Both threaten me by pushing their horrible material on me while harassing me with neverending advertising and consumerism, polluting my mind. I've always been a fan of searching out new music and never had enough money to buy the cds I wanted. Worse yet, my musical tastes have always been so obscure that I can never carry on a conversation about what bands are near and dear to my heart because no one I know has heard of them.  read more »

I like monkeys.
They are cute.
Riding on horseback
in their purple suit!

Funny little fellows,
climbing all about.
We could be playmates,
If they let you out!

Note to self: artificial turf is nothing like real grass.

My injuries this week started on Wednesday when I went for a goal in my soccer class. I slid for the ball, realizing afterwards that artificial turf acts more like sandpaper than real grass. My leg was shredded. It didn't hurt so much at the time, but it continued to hurt worse throughout the day, making the worst pain right when I was trying to sleep. Now one side of my leg is a large wound, but fortunately it is healing well.  read more »