Soaked to the Skin

This morning Jonny, Emily, and I got together to run an orienteering course at Magnuson Park. Two weeks ago at SeaTac Park when I beat Jonny for the first time, I wore a fleece jacket and almost caught the underbrush on fire I was so toasty. This week, I went with an ultra-thin cotton long-sleeved which proved to be just as unwise. Although the in-bed peering-out-the-window weather assessment was gray but dry skies, the second we stepped foot on the course, it started pouring. It was muddy, brambly, and puddly. In a word, delightful. Fleece is too hot. Cotton is too cold. This Goldilocks is on the lookout for a nice breathable rain jacket. As I'm here in lab this afternoon (gotta work hard too) I'm just glad I had some extra-warm jammies to change into.

It really is just the best flavah.

"You're as popular and relaxing as vanilla ice cream. You go with the flow, and get along with all sorts of people. You appreciate peace and simplicity, so you sometimes find crowds and loud noises overwhelming. You are a chilled-out, calming influence on the people in your life, and your friends appreciate how supportive and flexible you are. "

I once ordered vanilla ice cream mixed with vanilla wafers at the local ice cream mix parlor. Really blonde hair, my favorite color is white, are we sensing the trend?

Always a bridesmaid . . .

The pictures from our Halloween costumes just rolled in from Emily. Here we are as a matching set of bridesmaids. I love our bouquets. Suzy and I went to Pikes to grab the flowers.

Twenty bucks later we had secured two huge bouquets of flowers. The men of Seattle have no excuse to not track down flowers for their women. Elsewhere, these would have easily cost seven times that. So, this is actually about how much I love flowers. They're gorgeous and completely impractical. They're going to die and we know it. The point is that they're beautiful and we women think about you whenever we see them. Isn't that what you men really want? Furthermore, there are some flowers that when I see them, even years later, I still think of certain men because they gave me a bouquet of that type. Dear wonderful men, get to Pikes, get to Pikes.
As a side note, while you beautiful men are buying us flowers, treat yourselves to a $2.75 bag of mini-donuts. Don't think about the filthy man serving them, just ponder this donut perfection.

Uh, okay so this eye makeup may be why I'm still a bridesmaid. But how fun is it to just load it on. Ladies around the world will agree with me on this one.

Incandescent Love

Global warming has crossed the line. I applaud some of the side effects such as people being wise stewards of their resources, being aware of their consumption, and planting trees as a family on Saturday mornings. This is stuff they should have doing all along. But they have crossed the line when they want to pass legislation to ban incandescent light bulbs. The warmth and depth of the light that comes from that shining beam of tungsten is visual bliss. Compact fluorescents offer nothing more than the harsh angles of visual scissors. Can you imagine holding a garden party on a soft summer evening with the ambience of a garage workshop? I may act like a crazyface and store up a forty-year supply of Thomas Edison's finest hour.

Happy Carbon Offset Day!!!

Today is apparently the First Annual Carbon Offset Day. If they had really been thinking, they would have named it "Carbon Offset Observation Day" which would of course make it "CO2 Day". Do you see how important it is that everyone just hire me as their consultant? I wouldn't charge a dime because it would be enough to see people's fabulous ideas bloom to their full potential. Things like this carbon monoxide day disappoint me. They were so close to cleverness, they just fell short by about 24 particles. Anyway, Suzy Brambles, Sarah Hemlock, and I planted trees at Pioneer Park in Mercer Island. The best part (besides how beautifully soft the soil in western WA is) was the tree planting diagram. Apparently only partially planting a tree and then covering your mistakes with leaves is not acceptable. You do need to tuck them in nice and cozy though. I think we reduced Seattle's carbon footprint a bit which means orienteering is a viable option for years to come. Hurrah for ulterior motives!!!

Protein Angst

Monday unfolded the culmination of four years/six months of work in the form of the oft-touted seventeen hour work day. Except for a lovely two hours of FHE, I was digging in the protein trenches from 9:30 AM to 4:00 AM. Fortunately there is a thing called NOVA Online (Picture below is of the Andromeda Galaxy which is what the episode I watched was on).


Andromeda Galaxy, Paolo Candy

It definitely helped pass the column running hours. Today finalized the analysis of that work. Result? Nothing. Nada. Nicht. Et cetera. Oh, the pain and horror of it all. Whatever. The only bright side is that three years ago, I would have spent the next couple days sniffing away the tears. Now, this has happened so many times that I went and got some delish teriyaki and watched a movie on my laptop. I feel much better. In fact, I might go back to lab in a few minutes. See how ill grad school will make you?

Social without being social?

Tonight Suzy and I went to watch our fantastic UW volleyball players Jessica and Chantel. Um, we may have watched the first two.five games by ourselves despite knowing that half our ward was six sections away. We just had lots to chat about and weren't ready to mix and mingle. Someday we may regret this antipathy, but not this day.