Birthday, Mother's Day, Anniversary

Here are some cards that I've made over the last year that I just never got around to posting.  Enjoy!

Summer Reading List

I still have a take-home final to do, thank-you notes to write (for a conference I was in charge of), and thesis work to do... but it's practically summer vacation.  Sure, I'll be working full-time on my thesis, but I feel much less guilty about reading for pleasure during the summer than I do during the school year.

I'm also going to make it a goal to write a short review of each book on here.  This will be my rating system:

• ***** (5 Stars) = Loved it! A favorite I could read again and again!
• **** (4 Stars) = Very good.  I strongly recommend this book.
• *** (3 Stars) = Pretty good, but it's not the best (still worth reading).
• ** (2 Stars) = Eh... I'm not a fan.
• * (1 Star) = Not worth your time.

And so, without further ado, here is my summer reading list (in no particular order):

• "No Apparent Danger" by Victoria Bruce
• "Side Jobs" by Jim Butcher
• "Ghost Story" by Jim Butcher (comes out July 26!!)
• "Traveling Mercies" by Anne Lamott
• "The Meaning of Wife" by Anne Kingston
• "Circus of the Damned" by Laurell K. Hamilton
• "Heat Stroke" by Rachel Caine
• "The River of Doubt" by Candice Millard
• "The Well of Lost Plots" by Jasper Fforde

"Vegables"

Spring Break is drawing to a close now, and I'm not gonna lie... we ate a LOT of food this week.  Erik's friend Jacob and his friend Anthony were in town visiting for the week.  It was a lot of fun, but we ate so much food!  We went out to restaurants for all but one dinner, had leftovers pretty much every day for lunch (or fast food), and we introduced them to our guilty pleasures of cupcakes and frozen yogurt shops. Once they were introduced to these tasty treats, we may or may not have gone back every day.

This is pretty much what I ate this week:

Delicious? You bet (mmmm... cheese curds)!  Did I ever have the chance to get hungry? No, it just happened to be time for the next meal.  Oiy.

Our guests left town today.  While it was a lot of fun, I'm glad at the chance to get back to healthier eating.  All I want to eat today is fruits and vegetables.  Or, as I was whining today when Erik asked what I wanted for dinner... "I just want vegables.... mmm... vegables."  I'm predicting a week full of salad, fruit, and greek yogurt, and that's fine by me!

Photo credits: Cupcake images (www.thecupcakery.com), all others are the result of a super quick Google image search.

Create a Vacuum Day

Vacuum desiccator

According to holidayinsights.com, last Friday (February 4) was Create a Vaccuum Day.  Man, if only I had known that sooner!  I would have celebrated on time.  Instead, I guess I celebrated a week late.

Today I vacuum-impregnated my rock core samples from the Klamath Mountains.  You might be thinking, "Huh??"  One of my office buddies (a PhD student) showed me how to set my samples in epoxy and then put them in a vacuum chamber so that all of the tiny little air bubbles get sucked out.  Thus, I'm left with a nice (and bubble-free!) sample to look at under the Scanning Electron Microscope.

Yep, I think this is my nerdiest post to date.  And, by the way, I had no idea that Create a Vacuum Day existed until I stumbled upon it this evening. :)

Thesis stuff...

from PhD Comics

Mine's only a master's thesis, but the folks at PhD Comics are genius.  The goal is to defend my thesis in the summer (assuming I get it mostly written this semester).  But... it's hard to schedule anything with faculty during the summer (let alone 4 of them) due to busy schedules and field work.  And... things always take longer than anticipated.  The other day, I agreed to let my adviser request a TA spot for me in the fall. :(  I don't want to be in Vegas in the fall, but I guess if that happens, it would be nice to be able to pay rent.

My Refrigerator is Happy Now

I'm back in Vegas after having been in MN for about a month.  Last night, I ordered pizza for dinner, because the apartment had basically no food in it.


Pre-shopping refrigerator:  :(

• water
• butter
• various condiments
• sweet and sour mix
• pop
• lemon juice

Post-shopping (and cleaned!) refrigerator:  :)

• all of the above
• milk 
• creamer
• brie cheese
• parmesan cheese
• greek yogurt
• broccoli
• carrots
• tomatoes
• peppers
• onions
• a pomegranate 
• orange juice

Om nom nom nommm...

To a Better Year

Last year really sucked.  Don't get me wrong, some really great things did happen in 2010, but overall it was a tough year and it ended on a horrible note.

In short, I'd like to say here's to a better year in 2011.  And Donnie, get well soon.  Our thoughts of healing are focused on you, friend.

Photo: http://www.terrytheweaver.ie/pages/healing_tree_jpg.htm 

My Poster

The trip to Denver for GSA was over a month ago, but it was so much fun! We got to see lots of friends (friends from undergrad, former professors, field camp buddies) and it was great being able to catch up with everyone. I can't imagine what next year's conference is going to be like. It's going to be in Minneapolis, so I'm guessing that even more awesome MN geology-types will make an appearance.

Aside from all of the fun, I also survived my poster presentation (see above). I got a lot of useful feedback from people. It was also great to hear people suggest things that my adviser and I were already working on (but didn't include on the poster). Presenting on day 1 (which was Halloween, btw) was also very lucky, as I came down with a nasty cold halfway through the conference.

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