Birthday Season

June, July, and August in my family are pretty much considered to be "Birthday Season." On each side of my family we get together for a big birthday event (usually not too far off from the 4th of July) and celebrate. With our roadtrip this summer and lots o' research time, I completely forgot to post the cards I made.

For the ladies

For the men

And this one for the guy cousins who turned 24

I'm Getting Out of Nevada!!

At least for a few days, that is. :)


I'm headed off to Denver, CO for the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting! There will be some work involved, as I'm presenting my poster on serpentine weathering on the first day and I will also be keeping my eyes open for job opportunities. But, I'm thinking of this as a nice vacation and looking forward to a great time reconnecting with some awesome geologists! (Free beer and wine at the alumni parties is another plus!)

Photo: http://www.c-villecameraclub.org/Larry%20Goss/slides/Big%20Blue%20Bear%20-%20Colorado%20Convention%20Center%20Denver.html

I Need to Get Out of Nevada!

I love the sunlight. I love the warmth. But oh dear god, I need to get out of this state!!! Lately, school has been stressing me out big time. I have a lot of responsibilities, which I agreed to take on, but it's turning out to be a lot of stuff. I don't like to be a bitter and down person, but I need to vent. So here goes:

• People here do not know how to drive! I've complained about this many times, but it never ceases to tick me off. Today Erik and I decided to avoid an exit that is always backed up at a certain time of day. Instead, we end up at a light that says "No turn on red," so logically we stopped to wait for the green light in order to make our right turn. Three, that's right three! cars pulled around us on the shoulder of the road to turn right through the red!! Ugh... so much for taking the less frustrating route home!

• I suspect NV Energy is trying to steal our money. Two months ago we got an electricity bill that was $50 more than the highest bill we'd ever had. We were shocked by it, but figured that it was possible that we used the air conditioning a bit too much that month. So, we took efforts to cut back the following month, and the next bill was back to the normal range. We have not changed those habits. Today I opened our bill to find out that it had skyrocketed again! There's no way we used that much electricity (we even had days without air conditioning because it was cooler outside!).
• Nevada is brown. And dry.
  
• Nevada/Las Vegas makes a bunch of the "This is the worst place to live/Places with the worst water/Most dangerous neighborhoods/Dumbest people" lists. At the same time I see the other sides of those lists with Minnesota near the top for "Best places to live/Cleanest tap water/Smartest people" lists...
• My best friends aren't here. Erik's best friends aren't here.
• There are giant cockroaches. Enough said on that topic.
• I get more headaches here because it's arid and I suck at drinking water.
• Our neighbors have sketchy friends who like to publicly urinate on the tree outside. I am thankful that I realized what was going on, and looked away in time to avoid that image.
• We only get one channel that works all the time here, and it's FOX. Enough said.
• I'm sick of hearing/seeing Sharron Angle and Harry Reid advertisements. Harry Reid, your state is screwed and I don't really think you can fix it. Sharron Angle, you are an extreme moron and should be nowhere near public office.

Oiy... if you made your way through that mess, I apologize for the bitterness and the giant unloading. I'm hoping that things will start shaping up soon, and my outlook on stuff will improve along with it.

Photo: http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Nevada_Test_Site/

Appletini

Erik and I went out to eat at the Yard House on Friday night. They supposedly have the world's largest selection of draft beer, so you can imagine why Erik wanted to go. I, on the other hand, am not a fan of beer so I tested out their martini menu. I love sour-apple-flavored things, and after having one of their apple martinis, we set out to make our own.

1 part sweet & sour mix
1 part citrus vodka
1 1/2 parts sour apple pucker

Shake over ice, and enjoy!

New (Wedding) Blog

I'm starting a new blog: Amethyst, Diamond, & Peridot. It'll be about the adventures (and hopefully no misadventures) that Erik and I come across while planning our wedding.

Enjoy!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy 28th Anniversary
Mom & Dad!!

Photo by: LLB
Flowers by: Design Vertigo (an awesome new store in downtown North St. Paul, MN!!)

The Proposal

Something exciting happened last weekend:

It was around 1:00 in the morning, our 4-year anniversary had just technically begun, and Erik and I were still up talking. We decided that it was about time that we got some sleep, so I went to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

When I came out of the bathroom, there was Erik down on one knee in our room. Candles were lit, and my penguin stuffed animal (Tubby) was standing beside Erik, who was holding a ring box.

He said, "Do you remember the night, the first time we stayed up all night talking, when you fell asleep in my arms? I thought to myself I could do that forever. Will you marry me?"

I was very much surprised, given the hour of night, and had a goofy/giddy smile on my face.

"Yes, of course," I replied.

So, needless to say, Erik and I are really excited! I bought a wedding planning book at Barnes & Noble today (The "I Have a Life" Bride's Guide, edited by Andrea Mattei) to help me get started with some of the planning. Also, once a few more things are decided, I'll probably start a wedding blog so that this one doesn't get overloaded with posts about wedding planning.

Bucket List #1

Some time ago, I started to write a bucket list. It may or may not have had something to do with the release of the movie Bucket List (which I never actually saw, to tell the truth). I just thought that it sounded like a fun list to make; I really love making lists. As of a week ago, I was able to cross something off!

#1. Live in a state other than Minnesota for at least a year.

I moved to Las Vegas, Nevada to get my master's degree in geology. If all goes as planned, I'll be done in the spring (or summer?) of 2011. Then I'll be able to cross off #26 on my list.

5 Ways I Procrastinate Online

I've been meaning to do this post for a while, but get this... I was busy not procrastinating and working on my Geological Society of America annual meeting abstract that was due yesterday!! But now, I am back to procrastinating. Though, in all fairness, if I hadn't have woken up this morning with a giant headache, I would be at school working on my thesis.

There are many ways to procrastinate online, and I would like to share with you my 5 favorite ways to do so. In no particular order:

1) Lolcats at icanhascheezburger . The kitties are just so cute!!

2) PhD Comics (Piled High & Deeper). Anyone in grad school should appreciate the humor of these comics. There's even an "emergency button" in case your advisor walks in.


3) Various blogs. See my blogs I follow on the sidebar :)


4) Yahoo news stories. If it weren't for FOX (we only get one TV channel) and Yahoo, I would probably never know what is going on.


5) Facebook. Because, well, yeah... I'm a student who got sucked into the trend.

Images:
1) icanhascheezburger.com
2) phdcomics.com
3) blog.ning.com/2008/04/augmenting_your_blog_or_websit.html
4) yahoo homepage screenshot
5) brainz.org/completely-unscientific-yet-accurate-look-social-sites/

How am I supposed to make cookies with a brick?

That's right, a brick. I'm talking about a brick of brown sugar, because it's so ridiculously dry here. Erik and I decided to make chocolate chip cookies this last weekend, and it was a bit difficult to get started.

Brown sugar is supposed to be delightful and fluffy. Here in Las Vegas, however, brown sugar has the tendency to dry out. We've encountered this problem at home by not keeping it in an airtight container before, but this time we ended up with a brick straight from the store.

Here is the initial brick:


The white marks are from Erik trying to bust it apart with a spoon:


We read that microwaving the brown sugar with a bowl of water next to it might help. Not so much...


This is where we gave up, went to a different store, and bought brown sugar of the proper consistency.