Making my house more home-y

Matt and I got to share the weekend with Nana in Spokane.  It's awesome to be so close that we can just drive over without much ado.  On Friday night, we took down Nana's Christmas decorations, on Saturday she showed me some basics of stitching and mending that will come in handy as I embark on my new future as the owner of a sewing machine (yeah, I feel like this is a major upgrade in my identity).  And all the while we were constantly sorting stuff.  By the end of the weekend, we'd worked out a nice little system with bags and envelopes with various relatives names on them which were stuffed with photos, Christmas ornaments and the et cetera that you tend to find on these occasions.  Matt was very helpful, adding 120 lbs of salt to the water softener, and doing other tall/strong tasks, as well as helping in the kitchen with a rendition of Noel's Monkey Bread (YUM).

Nana is very cheerfully jettisoning anything and everything that can possibly find a good home- and I will say that is probably her one big slow down.  Once she's decided "I don't need this" it's not just a quick trip to the dump.  Figuring out which relative might treasure things, or friend might still get some use out of it, or perhaps if it is only suitable for Goodwill or a pending estate sale.  I do think that as the momentum builds that she'll make quick work of all this, though.  We decided to pack the family photos to my house for safe keeping until Nana and I can sit down and digitize those of interest and possibly trim down those that aren't.  With those out of the way, there are only a couple armloads of stuff left in the basement bedroom besides the furniture.

Our car drove back across the pass loaded down with Nana's bran muffins and cookies, all the photo albums I could get my hands on, some garden pots, Dad's cool coffee table from the basement, some of Mom's weavings, a lot of Papa's baskets, Nana's sewing table and a starter kit of fabrics, threads and awesome tools.  Getting those set up at my house makes it seem instantly cozier here.  Sure, we've had most of that Ikea furniture for years, but I still don't have as much affection for it as the coffee table that now sits in the living room, or the basket that now holds my remotes.  It makes the house feel a lot more like a place I want to be- something I didn't realize was missing from the last decade of apartment living. You guys should all come and visit me so you know what I am talking about.

Other news- I am leaving tomorrow for 4 days in New York at the New York Hall of Science.  I am hoping to be able to so some editing/writing for two separate contracts while traveling, as well as meeting some of the super awesome people who will also be at this meeting.  I am way behind on my algae work, but unicorn money only gets so much priority.  I had a great day on campus meeting with old professors and making some new contacts- much to follow up on there in the coming weeks.  And once things settle down from my current contracts, I am gong to spend 2 weeks trying to learn to code in Python, as a test of whether I have the mentality for computer program.  If so, I might learn MatLab, as a highly relevant job skill for a modern biologist- and if not, I'll focus on some of the other job skills I already have.

Quiet Night- and banana candy? anyone?

Noel told me he really likes being "and old man," which I take to mean he enjoys the comfort of the settled and predictable life. I like that, too, about once a month. And this weekend was my weekend for it. Matt and I walked up the hill for bagels, and I spent a couple hours in the coffee shop (I am ready for at least the first 4 week of class, with only another ~5 to REALLY prepare for), and then we made a quick dinner, and the nothing really got into full swing.

I suppose Noel's old man-itude actually involves more doing stuff, which is perhaps why he finds it so fulfilling. After dinner, I made a Cook's Illustrated Banana Bread- which took ages longer that I might have expected. I should have known, it was Cook's Illustrated.

As far as the recipe goes, we determined that some of the basic principles of the recipe were things we already incorporate (who in their right mind ever tried to make banana bread with unspeckled bananas?), so while it was good, it wasn't the usual 3 times better than we could have made on our own. It calls for layering some bananas on the top of the loaf, and then sprinkling the whole thing with sugar. This actually makes a carmely banana candy that reminded me of a seemingly familiar recipe that I cannot place. Does any one remember any sticky sweet recipes that are flavored with ripe banana? I am suspecting that this is something I learned form the Brazilians, but I cannot for the life of me find online.

While the loaf was cooking, the oven was on, and the apartment acted as a protective reservoir for all the leaked heat. Rather than revel in the efficiency, we stepped outside to enjoy a cold beverage in the dark on our porch. We got to talking to our next-door neighbor and watching bugs. Just good ol'fashioned nothing.

What to do on the hottest days of summer?

A) Participate in a Soccer Tournament
B) Go to a company picnic, and participate in a shop tour
C) Take in the movie theatre's AC while watching Despicable Me
D) All of the Above

If you picked D, you would have a perfect description of my weekend. Yes, several very bad choices to combine with heat, and lots of fun. As for the Soccer Tourney, my Canadian friend had decided to organize a tournament for the department. Six labs and groups organized teams, and I decided to go out an cheer. I decided to cheer before I realized it would be 95, and then I decided I should probably go to ply my coworkers with cold water before they became delirious. The tournament itself seemed like a lot of stress for my friend (an opposing goalie slide tackled several of our players, someone had a non-departmental player, another group showed up and thought they had the field reserved), but everyone else had a good time.

Saturday was the 100 year anniversary company picnic at Matt's work. They've been talking about this for month, but Matt just recently decided we should go, so I went to be supportive. I did meet some of his coworkers, see his cubicle, and wander around the "shop floor" which is really a compressor factory, which converted to a giant oven for the occasion. Very industrial scale. We attached ourselves to one of his friends whose whole family came out to participate. The grandad said that when he worked in the steel mill, they used to have this type of celebration every year, and so they all felt quite obliged to be supportive. Matt wanted me there to show me where he worked, I don't think to show off, but just so I could get a picture of it. But we passed hundreds of other family groups, proudly showing the impeller things they designed, or casings they milled. I think the PA mindset is more receptive to this type of event. Celebrating the great things Corporate has done for us made Matt a bit uncomfortable, but everyone else happily embraced it. By the time we left, the thermometer on the plant was reading over 100.

After a nap (well, Matt went to see the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix car show), we decided to do something sensible, and go see Despicable Me. I laughed a lot (but I always do). We saw it in 2D, but there were several scenes (roller coaster ride?) that might make you sick in 3D. It was a sweet story, and while it wasn't quite as funny as I wanted it to be, I did enjoy it a lot.

For the rest of today, I am off to a baby shower while Matt stays a home trying not to get too hot again.

Sledding Party

It's been snowing for more then a week straight. The conditions this weekend positively forced us to wrangle up some friends and sleds and head to the park. The natural amphitheater of the park was already polished to an icy patina, and a dynamic collection of runs that all ended in a small trail heading into the woods made for a good afternoon. Or as the Headlines might have read, "Nice Day Enjoyed by Many."

I got quoted by a shivery journalist trying to get me to say that the trees were dangerous and should be removed (I might not have let my own small children down there on a saucer, but I am proficient sledder. And there ought to be trees in park). He, of course, over-paraphrased the nature of our conversation- a middle school kid collided with a tree and was hauled out by paramedics. We heard he had a concussion, but I didn't feel like telling the reporter that. The result is the very tepid article. We capped off our sledding adventures with hot cider and pizza back at the apartment, complaining about our sore sledding and laughing muscles. Maybe adulthood is fun after all!

---UPDATE---
Good thing we got there when we did. Sledding is now BANNED in that park. Madness!

Happy Weekend

I don't always celebrate "weekends." It's not that I don't want to, but if I spend a couple days a week waiting for cells to be grown just so, I won't deny them if they finally get there on Saturday, as much as I suspect they do this on purpose because they are jerks.

This weekend though, no work. So we celebrated with Pittsburgh on Friday night. Saturday we got up, and decided, Heck, Let's just go to West Virginia. After having grown up somewhere you can't drive anywhere, it is really exhilarating to think you can jump in your car, and drive to somewhere else. Even if you are going to do nothing there too. Took a nice walk along the river (the Monogahala- the same one in Pittsburgh), did some window shopping in downtown Morgantown, ate some soft serve, drove through WVU and came home. Morgantown is only 1.5 hours from here- and we got a kick out of being spontaneous. West Virginia is not all that different from here, but we did see some gap teeth, and an ATV on the road.

Nice to take a full scale break, since this week is looking a little busy. In other news, my phone has been acting out, so we are considering the possibility of new(er) ones. Does anyone know if Verizon phones work in Juneau? Matt gets an employee discount, so we could be convinced to switch networks. I bought some new shoes today, I am hoping this will get my knees and hips back into alignment so I can start running (or at least exercising) again.

Boogerface in the Kitchen

After having a couple of full weekends this month, I am grateful to have a few days with nothing planned to recoup. Especially since I've got some kind of a bug- nothing horrible, just a congested head and an affinity to sweatpants.

Being homebound helped me make two breakthroughs in the kitchen. First was a pork roast to use up apple butter- I want to believe a pork roast can be as good as a beef roast. With enough rosemary and garlic, even the potatoes were a savory delight. Topped with apple butter mixed with evaporated milk, I felt like some kind of executive chef. Second, was to conquer Black Bean Soup. This turned out to be an incredibly yummy way to clear out the veggie drawer, and it tastes right too! The trick was Trader Joe's black beans and taco seasoning- Matt hopes I can do it again. The fridge is now stocked for a week of hearty eating, which sounds like a productive weekend.

We had a visitor!

This weekend we had our first friend come to visit. Shaoshu took a red eye to spend a three day weekend with us. We knew this was a lot of pressure- if Shaoshu had a good time, he would come back, but also tell our other friends that they should come too. We went shopping in the Strip District and to the East End Brewery to get supplies for hotpot. We went to the museum, we saw Pittsburgh Light Up, Point State Park and the Zoo (baby tiger!!). We even got to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving! It was a short, full, fun weekend. Shaoshu left just before I got sick too. I'll be spending the rest of the week sucking cough drops and Advil.

An album from the weekend is posted here, for your viewing pleasure.

Pittsburgh turns 250!

It's true, 250 years old! The city has been celebrating on all fronts all year long, with robots galleries, and concerts. This weekend, we celebrated with the city's biggest ever fireworks display. For a city that shoots off fireworks regularly after baseball games (for the Pirates no less), you can imagine this was a big to-do. We took some hot cocoa and friends to a hill overlooking downtown in the park and watched fireworks launched from boats, bridges and buildings for almost 45 minutes! It was a great display, and we didn't get caught in traffic, since we walked.

We also swung by the zoo to check on the TWO baby elephants. For 300-lb tubbos, they are cute as can be. One of the little ones seems to be teething, she was rubbing her lips on the bars of her enclosure, and also had hand in the shovel incident. Matt and I went to the zoo just to see these guys, so we were hanging out while a care-taker came to muck the stall. When he took the wheelbarrow away, he left a shovel, which the elephants promptly disassembled to its component parts, and each had a bit to chew on. The little one got the plasticy end, her mom had the whole handle- which she chewed like a toothpick- and their roommate kicked around the metal part until the zoo-keeper came back. He walked into a room of guilty looking elephants and took away all their toys. He was smirking.

Happy Matt's Birthday!

You may not have noticed, we've been avoiding talking about it at my house, but Matt had a birthday this weekend. Not a big round one, but one big enough that he didn't want to talk about it. So, to fufill my role as a dutiful wife who isn't married to a geezer I tracked down some fun stuff for the weekend to keep his mind off things.

The Main event was the Steel City Big Pour, a beer festival featuring dozens of breweries and food vendors at a construction recycling warehouse. I went as a DD, which meant for $10 I stuffed my faced for 3 hours and sampled sips of only the best of the probably hundred beers available on tap. Breweries came from all over- big highlights being Unibroue and Stone- as well as all our local and regional favorites, like the Church Brew Works and the East End Brewery. A good time (and then a nap) was had by all.

Later that night, W and J came over for dinner and to watch Matt open his presents. No cake, but we did have a peach crisp (although juicy peaches don't crisp, it was still good). Matt was the happy youthful recipient of a HUGE new TV, and totally surprised by the Garmin GPS Mom and Dad sent. Cool Toys!

Sunday we went shopping to find the perfect TV. Those who have ever had the joy of coaching Matt through a major purchase like this may appreciate that he spent 2 extra hours reading reviews (I say extra, because it isn't like he never thought about this before) before we went to Costco. And then he fretted about inputs, and whether we should just buy and upscaling DVD player now, or if we should get a cheaper TV and buy a blue-ray player, or upgrade the video card on his computer and... I suspect these things bring him great joy, but I told him to get the TV, and the rest we can install later. W and J came back to help us move the thing in and get it installed. We spent the rest of the night watching HD broadcast, and buying tickets to Cancun. More on this later!

Weekend in DC

Earlier this week, Matt told me it was a crime not to get out of town for a three-day weekend. Of course, my life is being synchronized by the growth of cells in lab, so I couldn't commit to anything until about Friday. We booked a place near The Mall, I did my Saturday morning "tuck in the cells" and away we went. DC is only about 4 hours from here, and through that lovely rolling hills and traces of trees that I think of as very Americana.

We arrived Saturday afternoon with time to walk around and see the major monuments at The Mall, including The Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, the Capitol Building, the White house, the 'new' WWII Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial and the 'new' monument to the signors of the constitution (it's a lake). Matt managed to take these photos so that is doesn't appear that there were millions of people from all over the world clamoring to see these things- but there were! We heard so many languages. It was really cool to think of people coming to see and learn about our history. We called ate at an awesome South American places for dinner near our hotel- though we had our choice of nationalities.

Next day, Matt wanted to see the Smithsonians. We saw, a lot of museums- the Freer Gallery, the Castle, Air and Space (Matt's Fav) and Natural History. Obviously not all in great detail- there was more than you could take in if you had all week- we were just scouting for highlights. My favorite exhibit was in the International Gallery- called Jim Henson's Fantastic World. There were sketches, and video and real Muppets! We saw Kermit, and Ernie and Bert and Fraggles. It was SO cool!

Once we'd exhausted our ability to amble through the museums, we walked around a bit. We walked into Chinatown, which was more East meets West Vibrant then say, the one in Vancouver. Bigscreens play ads and bright neons signs light up the bilingual AT&T and Quiznos. We caught dinner at the Capital City Brewing Company which had good beer.

Today we were to head back, so we thought we'd see some things on our way out of town. We'd been given a map from a Trolley company, and decided to follow their route to the National Cathedral and Embassy Row. This was both good and bag- good, the route was planned accounting for one way streets and took us to the high lights, bad, the map was not meant to be used as a navigation device and was not to scale, or too accurate. We got lost in Georgetown, but managed to find out way by dead reckoning. The timing was perfect for a stop at the Dogfish Head Alehouse- a must go for beer brains like Matt.

There are more pictures I've thrown up here. Enjoy!

Teaching looks a lot like manual labor.

You may remember that this is going to be my First Semester Teaching. I have been anxious about what that might entail for me responsibility-wise, am I lecturing? Grading? Writing assignments? Prepping? What?

After a few long-winded meetings with Dr. Teacher, I think that - despite the hourly breakdown of my responsibilities he gave me (3 hours grading and 1 hour clean up a week? Really?), most of my job will be to keep Dr. Teacher sane. That is why I am spending this weekend unpacking.

The space for the teaching labs has been 'renovated' so every piece of equipment, every chemical, every one of the hundreds of little fragile glass flasks has to be moved back into the the dungeon, unloaded and organized into a semi-logical fashion.
Before classes start the 25th.

If I were Dr. Teacher, I know I would be more than just freaked out (which he is), I would be livid (which he is). The space isn't technically ready for us even now, and there isn't like some major task force on hand to help with the transition.

And they didn't clean up the dust, and they didn't actually put any shelves in the prep area.

And they killed our internet connections.

But rather than freaking out about this myself (not my job), I am trying to maintain a optimistically hardworking attitude, and just fix the problems that will be my problem later. Like organizing glassware. Now is probably a good time for Dr. Teacher to form an impression that I am normally a hard working person, so that when things come up later- like I want to some experiments- he'll be inclined to be flexible. And things will come up.

I think I should point out the Universities attitude about the value of Teaching- I am getting a pay cut this semester. You can bet I'll be counting up my 20 hours a week pretty closely, because teaching won't get me any closer to graduating. Oh, I see- this is where all of those cynical, apathetic TAs came from.

Visit to Spokane!

Sorry I didn't post over the weekend. I was visiting my favorite grandparents in Spokane, and we were too busy catching up, watching the Olympics and being spoiled (well, I was at least) to get around to it. Nana and I took a ride on the Gondola over Spokane Falls- which is a spectacular view! I wish I'd remembered a camera. We also went out for Greek food, putzed around in the garden a bit and kept Papa company for the BBC Sunday mystery (Inspector Lindley?). I caught up with Gramma W too, who has decided she would like to make the move to Las Vegas, and I for one am really pleased for her.
I know everyone has been wondering about Papa's health. I think he plans to announce the end of his professional sprinting career soon, but he has enough humor that I think he can overcome the set back, especially with the aide of Nana's great cooking.
It is always nice to be reminded that I have such a great an supportive family, and especially good for the ego to hear grandparents tell you how smart and talented you are. I got in late last night, but I am primed and ready to master some science this week.

Camping Near State College

Just got back from a nice weekend away from the city. A former lab mate's family owns a cabin in the middle of the state, and she was gracious enough to host us there for the weekend. It is a sleepy little property with great sun and stars, and a wide yard that turned out to be perfect for playing croquet. We played several rounds, with decreasing appearances to the rules. There was also time to squeeze in a little Scrabble, and quite a few s'mores. We at a lot of great food, drank some nice wines and relaxed with a post-doc from across the hall and her husband. I think this next week and coming month will be increasingly crazy, so I am really glad we had a chance to relax together.

Aging Gracefully

It's my birthday. I am turning 25. I've been feeling lately like that ought to be significant, or by now "I" ought to be significant (I am entering my 21st year in school, is that an accomplishment?), but right now I am feeling ok to just enjoy the day. Matt was extra super wonderful to me all weekend, and besides dragging me across the park until my shoulders turned in to hot red tomatoes, we've done a lot of nice/ productive Sandlin-centric stuff this weekend. On Friday, my bay-mate and I headed into the strip district for a wine tasting, which made us feel classy. Matt joined us and we followed that up with tapas at a posh Carribean restaurant Kaya.

Saturday after a cold shower and long nap (that car show was scorching!) we went to a nice fish place called Mitchell's. I'd heard this place was nice and affordable, and our waiter helped us avoid the farmed fishes, so we enjoyed a really tasty guilt-free meal. Sunday I got to open my birthday present- a new Kelty backpack, replete with pockets, lashings and space. I am packing into it for my trip to Madison.

At work today, we got to celebrate a labmate turning in his comprehensive exam (for a different department), so coffee and donuts in the morning. We all walked out for lunch time salads and then my bay-mate brought in a HUGE chocolate cake from the cities BEST bakery, the Oakmont. And just when I thought I couldn't move again for celebrating, they brought me a Bubble Tea. The bubbles remind me too much of fish eyes, but Matt found you can get a lot of distance of a tapioca ball shot back through its straw. No less than TWO cutlery related packages arrived, so I am organizing the knives in the woodblock to maximize kitchen efficiency and sharpening my old dull knifes. How fun!

Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix

This weekend, we went to the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, a car show, street race fund raiser extravaganza. This weekend's activities were set in Schenley Park, just blocks from our apartment, and benefit one of Myron Cope's organizations- supporting care and research for Autism. The car show is incredible, there are rows and rows of cars from all makers and all eras. This kind of event had a huge crowd, despite temps well over 90. The crowd is a "only in Pittsburgh" mix of fans, enthusiasts and aficionados (or pop, coors light and champagne). There were old minis and triumphs, a few very old model Ts, and some very new hotrods and sports cars. You can imagine Matt was really in to this.

The car show itself takes place on the Golf Course in the park, so there are plenty of rolling greens to park cars on. Ha. This is of course convenient to the race track, which are the winding roads in the park. Right there! They really drive these real old cars! Fast! To truly experience a vintage grand prix you would have to imagine the noise of a gang of bikers combined with the smell of burned alcohol and rubber. For the benefit of the movie, I've added a blues soundtrack, since I've found this is the best way to cope with the heat. Although the race is almost a mile away, we can hear the cars from home. I cobbled together a couple clips for those who might enjoy seeing this.

No news - more rumors

The update on Matt's new "career opportunities" is still up in the air. It is starting to sound like they want to upgrade his responsibilities by two full positions, but keep him on the same pay scale. If they were going to just make him do the job that needs to be filled (that he doesn't want), there should be a significant monetary increase. The real story may be some broader redistribution of a lot of people's responsibilities for a short period of time. Either way, his immediate supervisor asked him to work through a few things before the end of next week since he "probably won't be available to after that." At least this sounds like it should all sort out soon- I'll keep you up to date.

Otherwise, we didn't join a roller derby league, but we did visit the zoo again (no glimpse of the baby elephant!) and eat sushi this weekend. Also, my former mentor (and previous tenant in our current house) came over to visit Friday night and visit the neighbors, which was a lot of food and fun.

This week: Gear up for the DNA Tumor Virus Meeting in Madison. I'm leaving the day after my birthday- I think my siblings will have to cover the blogage while I am gone!

Happy Fourth!

Matt and I took the long weekend to go to Milford PA with J and W (our travel companions to Alaska) for J's birthday/ major BBQ festivities. We went last year for a 2 day weekend that was such a whirlwind of making-food-meeting-people-eating-food-drinking-laughing-fireworks and fun that we HAD to go back this year. I can't think of a more Americana way to spend the nations birthday- and dang it was a lot of fun! The extra day afforded us our first trip to both New York State AND New Jersey (I liked New York better- they have amazing ice cream there), and more relaxed pace of making food. And extra time for J's Dad to rope the boys into his pyrotechnics plan.

The tradition at J's house to BBQ up 100lbs of chicken, shrimp and clams, and all kinds of people hang out eating and chatting by the lake until dark, when her Dad lights a few fireworks. This year, thanks to the BOGO special, he had what he admitted was the equivalent of $600 of combustibles. And a plan. He asked Matt to help him manage a pair of boats- one for crew and one for explosives- so the aerials would go off over the water. In the meantime, W was one shore (suffering the catcalls of the audience), lighting off ground displays that were more dramatic close up. This was just silly enough to be exciting but not dangerous- and I am hoping to get some well captured footage of Matt in the boat so stay tuned.

The whole party was a lot of fun, with an improved plan for next year's display already in the works. Great Holiday!

Visiting the Zoo

Yesterday, in our continued effort to enjoy our time not at work, we went to the zoo with one of my labmates. This turned out to be an even better idea than just going to the zoo- Sarah did horticultural stuff there a few summers back, and has been in most all the habitats and know all kinds of secrets about the facility. Like, that the elephants are exercised before the zoo opens by walking around the whole park. In single file, holding their tails with their trunks. How Cool! And that all the monkeys have hidden habitats under the viewing area, and that the gorillas actually have the best one, its like a jungle gym. Oh, and that only one of the gorillas will go outdoors when it snows, and he makes snowballs and brings them inside to pelt other gorillas with. I've got to go back to see that!

We mostly went to check on the elephants. There are TWO pregnant elephants right now, both at around 22 mo pregnant, which is about as pregnant as an elephant is supposed to get. They are due anyday now. While we missed out on baby elephants, we did get to pet a kangaroo (very soft, surprisingly), and see the polarbears swimming from below. SO COOL!

We also watched Get Smart, which made me laugh a LOT. We are pretty much having a great weekend. I'll update soon about my pottery class- stay tuned for 10 weeks of messy comedy.

Funday At Kennywood!

Not to detract from the sweet video posted earlier today (stop reading this, go watch Bart's video!), but I couldn't wait to gush about our weekend trip to Kennywood. On Saturday, I got an email from my undergrad saying he wouldn't be in Monday, his family had planned their annual trip to Kennywood. And it sounded like such a good idea, we decided to go Sunday.

Kennywood is a historic amusement park, minutes away from our apartment. They've got old classic rides like the Whip, and a Grand Carousel, some new fast thrill rides and coasters, and some old wooden coasters. I've heard people use this as a selling point, but I find "Historic Wooden Roller Coaster" lacks a certain appeal. There are actually several places in the park on the National Historic Registry, which gives the place a classic feel.

I cannot lie, I spent a good chunk of the day thinking "this is like at Silverwood, but smaller." True of the whole park, the log ride, the paratrooper, the ice cream, the lagoon... It probably isn't though- I should probably just never go back to Silverwood and ruin my otherwise perfect memories of summers with Nana and Papa in that park.

But it isn't all reminiscing- two of the fast roller coasters are built to descend down a steep cliff at the edge of the park. They send you hurtling at a thousand miles an hour off what looks like the point of no return only to slam your brains and stomach in ultra G force turns. I laughed and screamed so much I was hoarse today. Matt mostly just laughed - he is too stoic for screaming.

We got there shortly after opening, started riding- enjoyed greasy handcut fries and hand-dipped (ie greasy) corn-dogs -followed by a period of low G forces to get our tummies in-line- and rode until almost 10, when the ride we waited so patiently to get to the front of was closed because of the lightening.

We are so good at having fun.

Good grief, what a weekend

So we went out to LA this weekend for The Chef's wedding. That was a busy weekend, let me tell you. We worked on friday then came home to say bye to the kitties and get our stuff. We went out the airport, flew to LA, and drove right out to hang out with the Hockey chicks. Jess got her championship hat (her team won the last season, but she missed the last game :( and got to see a lot of her old friends. Everyone is doing well, even if the league is going through changes. It always is, the faithful just continue to play hockey.

After that, we went to K.A.T.E.'s house, where K, A, T, and E live. It's a proper bachelor pad, which is to say big TV, messy kitchen, and always stuff happening there. We got there at the same time as everyone else coming back from a night of partying. I'm not entirely sad I missed it. Too much alcohol. Anyway, we crashed at KATE's house for the night, (3 AM, Texas time) and then went to a farmer's market in the morning. I had a 'Pluot'. A cross between, I believe, a plum and an apricot. GOOD FRUIT. Keep an eye out for that one.

I got a bunch of other stuff for breakfast too. Most of which which was strange and foreign, but delicious. After that we went back and Jess was *really* nice to me. Instead of making me go out and do stuff, she let me stay at KATE's and be lazy for a while. Then we had a little impromptu grill session in the backyard and called it a day.

Sunday was CRZY, though. We got up and went to Dim Sum: chinese food, all of it served A La Carte. It's good stuff, especially if you're adventurous. If you're *really* adventurous, though, it's less good (pig intestines, chicken feet, straight-up blood.) I stayed with the parts of the animal I recognized and had a pretty good meal.

After that we hung out with Jason and Megan for a while, which was nice to see, but then...then the wedding started to happen...