checking in

A few random thoughts...

1) Up until last week, I thought the lyrics to The Killers song "Human" were:

Are we human? Or are we dancer?

Like I thought it was this great ode to dancing. Yeah, I'm not human, I'm dancer! Yay dance! Turns out the actual words are:

Are we human? Or are we denser? 

Which does make a little more sense, I suppose.

NEVER MIND. It IS dancer, and I clearly am unable to find reputable lyric websites.

2) The other day I read this review article about chemical gardens, which are these alien plant-looking mineral formations. It turned out my lab had everything needed to make some. So I did, and I posted about it on Twitter, and a million (okay like 40) people retweeted it, and I felt so cool.

BEHOLD THE MAJESTY:

What you do is make a sodium silicate solution (which you can do at home by crushing up some silica beads like you find in the do-not-eat packets in shoes or electronics and mixing it with lye) and then drop in some metal salts (which you can buy on Amazon, like everything else in existence). Pictured above left to right the metal salts used are: copper(II) chloride, cobalt(II) chloride, zinc chloride, and iron(II) chloride. Different metals lead to different colors and different growth patterns. Chemistry is so great. 

3) Speaking of how great chemistry is, here's a piece by Oliver Sacks that spells it out a lot more beautifully than I can. As he is dying of metastatic cancer, he finds comfort in the physical sciences:

"Times of stress throughout my life have led me to turn, or return, to the physical sciences, a world where there is no life, but also no death.

 And now, at this juncture, when death is no longer an abstract concept, but a presence — an all-too-close, not-to-be-denied presence — I am again surrounding myself, as I did when I was a boy, with metals and minerals, little emblems of eternity."

Little emblems of eternity. I love that.

4) I started listening to podcasts on my walk to/from lab. #muchculture. I am loving Invisibilia and Radiolab, especially this episode. Parents of a baby who died a few days after being born donated his body to medical research, and a little while later, his mom tried to find out exactly where his organs went and what they were used for. It made me cry and feel proud to be a scientist.

5) Aaron and I were recently debating over buying an ice cream machine because it seemed like a fun new cooking adventure we should try out. And then out of the blue, Wendy sent us one because she is the best! It turns out making ice cream is super easy and delicious. We've tried salted caramel and mint chip, and basically if you come to our house for a party or dinner in the future I'M MAKING YOU ICE CREAM!

So...that's how things are going around here lately. What are you loving these days? What else should I be reading/listening to/eating? I mean besides ice cream, obviously.

recommended: interstellar + smith kids

I think I've sort of forgotten how to do this. Let's ease myself back into blogging, shall we, with a post about not much. Two things you should look into:

Recommendation #1

Aaron and I saw Interstellar this weekend, and I loved it. The last hour got a little hokey, and sure, it was odd that they needed massive amounts of fuel to escape earth's gravity, but could zip off any other planet they wanted no problem even when the gravity was greater than earth's, but MAN. I am still thinking about that movie three days later, and that has to mean something. Some things I loved in no particular order: the music, the massive wave planet, the visual effects all-around, the fact that all the main characters are scientists or engineers and it's a female scientist who figures everything out and spoiler alert saves everyone, the idea of time as a villain, the general caliber of acting, and again, the music. Didn't know I was an organ fan until I saw this movie!

Recommendation #2

Have you guys read this interview* with Willow and Jaden Smith? It is out of control. Seriously, who are these kids? They are INSANE.

An excerpt to whet your appetite:

I'm curious about your experience of time. Do you feel like life is moving really quickly? Is your music one way to sort of turn it over and reflect on it?

WILLOW: I mean, time for me, I can make it go slow or fast, however I please, and that's how I know it doesn't exist.

JADEN: It's proven that how time moves for you depends on where you are in the universe. It's relative to beings and other places. But on the level of being here on earth, if you are aware in a moment, one second can last a year. And if you are unaware, your whole childhood, your whole life can pass by in six seconds. But it's also such a thing that you can get lost in.

WILLOW: Because living.

JADEN: Right, because you have to live. There's a theoretical physicist inside all of our minds, and you can talk and talk, but it's living.

WILLOW: It's the action of it.

wut? The whole thing is like that, it's amazing.

So there you go, Interstellar and interviews with crazy celebrity children. What do you have to recommend to me?

*Guess you're going to have to google it, because I can't get around the New York Times login page to get a link. UGH. 

i spent too long looking at this picture and now they look like fortune cookies:

We made tortellini last weekend in celebration of Aaron being done with his pediatrics rotation and shelf exam and me being done with summer term TAing. It was surprisingly easy to shape, like easier than ravioli even with our ravioli press. And none burst when we cooked them! We filled them with homemade ricotta and homegrown basil and topped them off with homemade spaghetti sauce. I'm just now realizing that Aaron literally did everything except shape the pasta, so good job Aaron! You spent your weekend off cooking for me! 

I don't know what's wrong with me, but I sort of feel like I've had writer's block for over a year now. I just don't have anything to say lately! So in lieu of a lovely closing paragraph here's a slothstronaut:

You're welcome.

march madness commercials are pretty great

Aaron finished his shelf exams yesterday, and we are so happy. It's been an absolutely lovely Saturday with those out of the way. Today we cleaned the church, cleaned our shower (East Coast mold is the worst), went grocery shopping, bought shoes for Aaron, got bagels at Spread (so good-you should have one), and watched a lot of basketball.

Tonight we will keep "watching" basketball and also make risotto. I have watching in quotes because I will actually be working on preparing for my candidacy exam/getting distracted by pinterest. Speaking of basketball, though, I'm really proud of the fact that I'm currently winning the Elder's Quorum bracket. Especially because it's the first time I remember filling one out. YEAH TAKE THAT BOYS.

Also...go Duke!

The end.

all the non-sad things i haven't blogged about in the past couple weeks

Heaven help the girls who believe this. 

This is the most adorable nativity video I've ever seen. (that accent!) It held all but one of my primary kids' attention. I count that as victory.

I got my haircut a couple weeks ago (finally), and it took 2.5 hours. Haircut + blow dry + straighten. TWO AND A HALF HOURS. This is why I hate going to the salon. Also, one side of my hair was longer than the other when I got home, so after crying about the hours of my life I had just wasted, I ended up cutting it myself. I can totally keep cutting my own hair for the rest of my life without any training whatsoever, right? That's definitely a viable option?

Also, I've been moved from teaching primary to being the nursery leader at church. When we first moved into the branch, Aaron and I taught the adult class. Then I taught primary (usually 7-10 year olds). Now I'm in nursery (18 months-2 years). Hmmm. Hmm. Hm. 

Pants in church. For some reason I'm annoyed with both sides: everyone who's super gung-ho about it, and also those who are like, "This is so stupid!" I'm like, it's not about the pants, people who think it's so stupid! But I'm also like, I don't want the priesthood, I've never actually felt demeaned as a woman in church, and I like wearing dresses. So, there you go. 

I have nothing intelligent to say on the topic apparently.

My last paragraph for your reading pleasure is about reading! I've been going crazy with Penn's interlibrary loan-esque services these days and currently have 7 books checked out from the library, mostly in preparation for our flights to/from Utah for Christmas. Well, actually, three are cookbooks: Barefoot Contessa at Home, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, and The Science of Good Cooking. They're all excellent, but I'm especially in love with The Science of Good Cooking. I kind of want my own copy. It's from the Cook's Illustrated people, and they present 50 different cooking techniques along with recipes that use each technique. The idea is that mastering these techniques will allow you to cook almost anything really well. With each technique they explain why doing it a certain way leads to superior results, and they describe the specific proteins that are involved, and I LOVE IT. I love it so much. It's made me sort of wish I did nothing but investigate the chemistry of food all day. 

Other books on the menu: The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver (of magical predicting fame), Messenger by Lois Lowry, A Guide to Scientific Writing, and a collection of Robert Frost poems. Probably not going to take the writing guide or Robert Frost with me on the plane, but good reading nevertheless! As always, I'm open to book suggestions. (Messenger is less than 200 pages long, so...)

Adorable New Zealand children, haircuts, teaching progressively simpler lessons in church, Mormon feminists, books. I think that about covers it all. Thoughts? 

everything's not lost

I realized the other day when I was lost in blog stalking land that when I discover the blog of someone I used to know, I like it when I can quickly ascertain what they're up to these days.

So, here you go, stalkers. This is what I'm up to these days:

Aaron's back in school, I am back in TAing (no more classes forever!). I'm the head TA for the gen chem lab this semester, and I sort of like it a lot. Today Aaron took his first test of the semester: cardiology. It's his hobby (or at least that's what he said on a get-to-know-you sheet in organic chemistry class several years ago), and he's Aaron, so he probably rocked it. We met up for lunch and got macarons at my beloved Sugar Philly dessert truck. I'm doing some pretty fun things in lab trying to get my protein crosslinked intramolecularly, and it's making lots of lovely colors. The lovely colors are probably a bad sign, but I'm enjoying it, and that's [not actually] what counts [in grad school]! This weekend we're going to a church party and my labmate/mentor's wedding. My last post aside, I really love parties, especially ones where you get to dance (wedding!!!).

Also, I really like the Coldplay song that is the title of this post.
And...that's all I have to say tonight.

this is a post about posts

I wrote a list of things I want to write about, but haven't gotten around to yet:

Mom sticking it to the MAN (also known as the school district),

delicious food pictures,

my conflicted feelings on Trader Joe's and the Rittenhouse Square Saturday farmers market,

the 6 inches of split ends I have currently and my reluctance to make a hair appointment (Philly people- salon recommendations?),

Aaron making homemade ricotta cheese against my wishes,

my lack of friends who've read Game of Thrones (which I can't in good conscience actually recommend to anyone, but I need to talk to someone about these stupid books that I CANNOT STOP READING),

listening to people in lab bash on Republicans for half an hour ("I f'ing hate them") and now I want to hang up a Romney poster above my desk just to be spiteful,

flirting with switching over to Wordpress. Oops, I sort of already did: fromthemindofkatie.wordpress.com

I better start writing.

oh hey.

In case you're wondering, I'm still alive. Here are a few random paragraphs for proof! (Aside: I just realized I have unintentionally posted exactly every 10 days this month. Only 3 posts in a month? Record low, I think.)


Today I went over to the electron microscopy center in the med school to get trained on one of the microscopes. On my way back to the chemistry building, I ran into my husband, who'd just gotten out of observing surgery in the OR.

And I thought to myself, I just got trained on a electron microscope by a nice old guy with a ponytail, and I'm married to a [future] doctor. I feel really great about life right now!

In other news, I can't stop myself from talking about my siblings, so here's another paragraph from Jeff's latest email (which is very appropriate considering my last post):

"We have an investigator named XXXX who is a middle aged, very serious man who is really smart and kind of intense. Last week we went and taught him the plan of salvation and he had lots of questions and so we were discussing his questions and then all the sudden he confessed to us about how much he loves Avatar, the cartoon! Elder YYY and I just busted out laughing because neither one of us knew what to say or how to bring the conversation back to the lesson. We just sat there laughing like idiots in total disbelief for a couple seconds. Then we talked about avatar for a few minutes and it turned out to be a good lesson. You never know when you'll encounter a secret avatar fan. They're hidden all over the world."


See? I'm not the only one. 


That's all. 

i hate titling my posts

Today, I parallel parked for the first time since moving to Philadelphia. I have successfully avoided it for nine months, which I think is rather impressive itself, but finally I sucked it up and parked, parallelly, on the left side of a road, on a very narrow street. (okay, the parking spot was pretty big, but still!)
THERE IS NOTHING I CAN'T DO NOW, WORLD!

(Oh, and the fact that I am driving means our car is all fixed up and back to us, all clean and shiny with a new window and paint and no more Diet Coke residue in the cup holders! Two weeks ahead of schedule!)

Another thing: science friends, have you seen these articles published recently in Angewandte?

Blood typing inspired by Tom Riddle's diary in Harry Potter

Using NIR imaging spectroscopy to look at paint binders in illuminated manuscripts

I mean, cool! Harry Potter and illuminated manuscripts. It doesn't get much better than that...unless you can also parallel park.

Hope your weekend is lovely and that you conquer some major fear so you can feel invincible, too!

even Diet Coke can't keep me awake!

According to Aaron, I am a type 1 sleeper. This means I'm really bad at handling sleep depravation. Looking at my falling asleep three nights in a row at 7 PM (and waking up two hours later...ugh), falling asleep in a class of 8 students on Monday (awkward), and falling asleep in a seminar yesterday, I'm going to have to agree with his conclusion.

The sad thing is, I go to bed between midnight and 1 AM and wake up at 7:30 AM. Can someone explain to me how I used to run on two hours of sleep in undergrad but now can't function with less than seven?
It must be my old age.

in my place

here is a kind of blurry trendy photo worthy of a lifestyle blog!

Today was totally lifestyle blog worthy, missing only an adorable baby who followed me around and did everything with me. Also, I did not wear lipstick.

Instead, I: 

1. walked to Barnes and Noble on Rittenhouse Square and enjoyed listening to a mom read to her little girl while I fretted about what children's books to buy for a baby shower (have you ever read Tacky the Penguin? so great)

2. wore a chambray shirt and did my hair in a high bun

3. [graded gen chem assignments-not blog worthy]

4. bought two roasted pineapple macarons from Sugar Philly

5. jumped back into gardening by purchasing some basil plants! (Last summer I tried growing basil, but it got little black dots on it that I thought might be bugs so I sort of cut all the leaves off of it and then it died. Stems are not efficient at photosynthesis.)

I guess blog worthy actually just means shopping. Hmmm. 

Have a good weekend!

bugged

I don't see the point of "liking" a pin on pinterest. If you "like" it so much, why don't you just pin it to your dang board, random stranger? (If you are my friend, this doesn't apply. Maybe we have some inside joke or some shared experience represented by the pin, and in this case it is perfectly appropriate to like it.)

Also, while I'm talking about things that bother me, how about the phrase "'nuff said." Would it kill you to type out "enough?" I hate it sooooo much, I don't even know why.

That's all I had to say. I know, deep thoughts.

more from the graham canyon (have been craving that ice cream for a week now)

I don't really have anything to say so here's an award winning haiku written by Becky and two more Grand Canyon photos.

I'm double stuffed

Cause I ate an Oreo

Stretchy pants today

Sunset at the Grand Canyon is epic (especially in vivid color!)

Aaron came up with the concept for this picture: "The Girl Who Kicked the Hermit's Rest."

(get it, get it? Aaron calls that book series "The Girl Who Did Dangerous Things," which I find pretty amusing. also, ignore my large thighs.)

While we're talking about anything in this post, have you guys heard that there's an official air date for Legend of Korra? April 14th everyone. April 14th. I'm going to have to use all my internet skills to find it online since we are still lacking in cable, which is fine since we just Hulu everything anyway. I wonder if Nickelodeon shows are on Hulu? 

I must investigate. 

sharing time

Three more thoughts for today:

1. I really loved this series of essays by C. Jane about her past relationships. You ought to read them.

2. Cooking mishap: Tortillas will stick to tin foil, and you will get really frustrated with your tin foil-studded enchiladas.

2. Cooking win: Yesterday we had a successful salmon and cheesecake experience (though not at the same time). Two birds with one holiday, guys! Salmon recipe here, chocolate cheesecake found here.

You got any links you want to share?

a lesson in sentence types

Question: Is it worth it to make bagels and vanilla extract from scratch?

Statement: I am officially in a lab studying bioinorganic chemistry.

Exclamation: I have my own desk with a key so it's like I'm a real life grad student!!!!!

Command: Have a good weekend!

hiding beet sugar or cane sugar? also, everglades.

Right now I wish I had four roommates so we could get some great discussion going about tonight's Republican debate and the fact that Harrison Ford is slated to play Colonel Graff in the Ender's Game movie coming out next year! Since Aaron is buried in study materials, all I've done is posted a couple lame tweets, texted my mom, and contemplated sharing a link on facebook. I haven't felt this socially deprived since I lived in France and no one could understand me.

Tell me how excited you are for this movie/how weird Newt's hair is/how lame the questions were at the debate/why did Romney use the word self-deportation/the girl from "True Grit" is also in "Ender's Game"/the director of "Ender's Game" is also responsible for its screenplay and that X-men Wolverine movie which is a little concerning/I am soooo needy.

Or maybe I just don't feel like reading a paper for bioinorganic that's not due until Thursday anyway.

i need a photobooth intervention

This is kind of how I feel today. Whaddaya mean I have to walk to class in the rain and TA lab? I just want to sit at home and pretend this is a fashion blog:

My posing skills are unparalleled.

the view from the quiet zone of the chemistry library

On your left we have the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), the med school's translational research building in the middle, Penn tower (hotel for patients' families) on the right, and dome building on the far right is part of the anthropologie museum. Since this was taken using photobooth, everything is reversed in real life. Hope that doesn't confuse you when you come to visit us.

I am determined to get some falafel this week. I am also determined to carve pumpkins because it is October! ($6 for one pumpkin be darned!) I am also determined to make candy corn-themed dessert, carmel popcorn, and apple cider! It is fall! And it finally feels like it, too. No more 90% humidity and 75 degrees outside. Today was a beautiful, crisp 55. In a couple more days conference talks will be online, which is great because I am never able to catch everything I want to the first time around. (but you can already re-watch here. and I highly recommend you do if you need a pick me up.)And by tomorrow, my first grad school [take home] test will be out of my hands, and there will be nothing else I can do with it. Hooorah!

So, the first time I published this post, I had [/randomness] only with little arrow brackets like this: <   >, like html code, except blogger took it as something real, and it didn't show up. Funny. The end.


/random

raised eyebrow

For some reason this is my post with the most views. More than twice the amount of page views as the next highest.

I am confused.

Who are you who loves this post so much?

coconut frosting, all over the box

I think you're going to see an increase in blogging from me in the next couple weeks, since Aaron is at orientation/class all day, and I am being really productive watching Masterchef on Hulu! Also, I am practicing baking. (see last cookie post, and soon to come garlic knot roll post.)

So far, today has been fairly exciting. This morning I dropped Aaron off at school by way of a different bridge than yesterday. Then, I drove over to Target to buy some much needed hangers (we broke some in the move/never had enough?) and an alarm clock. I then went to ShopRite for groceries and found ground turkey for $2.65 for 1.25 lbs!!!! Wow!!! Excitement!!! We keep finding it for no cheaper than $3.50, so this was a big deal. Next up, laying in bed trying to fall back asleep (it was only 10:00 AM, and I had nothing else to do). When that didn't pan out (too excited over ground turkey!!!), I watched last night's episode of Masterchef, which was more like an episode of Hell's Kitchen.

But wait, this day gets even better! Aaron and I had seen a little dry cleaner place and a cupcake place not too far from where we live, and I thought to myself, I have owned that Express cheetah-lined pencil skirt for two years now and have never cleaned it. This is maybe gross. So what did I do? Grabbed my skirt and went to the dry cleaners! It was raining a little bit, but it was a good thing because it meant it wasn't 90 degrees outside. After the cleaners I went to the cupcake place which had a $10 minimum credit card purchase, and all I had was a dollar cash, so 4 cupcakes it was! I was really excited about these cupcakes because I hadn't bought a cupcake since I dragged Aaron to the Sweet Tooth Fairy back in Provo months ago. But right as I walked out of the store, it started pouring. I started running. But I was too slow, and my house was too far, and my cupcake box got all rainy, and my cupcakes got all smooshed.

really attractive me and a smashed carrot cake cupcake (carrot cupcake?)

It was okay though, because I felt like I really live here (if dry cleaning doesn't say permanence, I don't know what does). It was also nice to get out of the house again, and it was actually sort of pleasant being rained on.

Aaron won't get home until around 7:00 tonight, so who knows what other adventures I'll have!
Have you had any adventures lately?