as crafty as i get

I think I'll leave it up until my birthday (next March), and just replace Aaron with Katie. Also, I think the outlet + cable jack is a nice touch.
(That reminds me, freshman year of college we used to put up all sorts of decorations for birthdays. I think Kristen's birthday was the first that semester and her nickname was K-Bob, so we put up a "Happy Birthday K-Bob!" banner. Once it was Lauren's birthday we just replaced the K with L, even though no one ever called Lauren L-Bob. We also lit birthday candles by holding q-tips against the stove burners and lighting them on fire because we were either too lazy or cheap to buy matches. Safety!)

mmmmm nutella

This is what is wrong with America:

3 million dollar lawsuit because of an idiot who didn't know Nutella wasn't healthy. 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

moldy basil. now that's appetizing.

I was going to write this post about how awesome my plants are doing (2 basil plants + 2 cherry tomato plants + a generic IKEA houseplant that I resent because I wanted a succulent and Aaron said no). But last night I realized that the terracotta pots my basil plants are in are coated in a thin film of white mold. WHITE MOLD. It's disgusting. I'm actually getting pretty awesome at using bleach to solve all my problems, but I can't help but think that might be a bad idea to use on a pot that contains plants I plan to ingest? I actually dreamed about this last night, except in my dream I stuck a fan near the plants to improve the air circulation. Imagine my disappointment when I woke up and realized we don't own a fan. An emergency IKEA run for new pots might be in order instead...darn. I hate it when I just have to go to IKEA by myself so I can spend all the time I want in that huge building full of Swedish home goodness.

Lesson learned: no more terracotta.

hb

Tomorrow is Aaron's birthday, and I had all these plans to have an awesome grilled steak dinner and make banana cream pie, but then I found out I have to grade the final for the gen chem class I TA tomorrow afternoon. Last semester we didn't finish until 10:30 PM, and I have no hopes this semester will be any different. So, we had a mini celebration tonight instead, featuring grilled chicken and corn on the cob and early birthday cake.

Aaron loves it when I take his picture.

The spacing's a little off, but I didn't misspell anything! Win!

Twenty-five years old on the 25th of April, how about that?

Happy birthday darling!

(you can wish him a happy birthday too, if you like, on his blog!)

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!

don't work. be hated. love someone.

I have a feeling that in a couple years anyone who posts a status update about graduating will really get on my nerves. (I am not graduating until at least 2016. Let that sink in.) But since I'm still a bright-eyed and naive first year grad student, I'm happy for you!* In fact, I'm even linking to this convocation talk that's been all over my facebook today:

"What you should prepare for is mess. Life’s a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it. Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it. Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Your degree is a poor armour against fate.
....
Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don’t, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it."

The first paragraph resonates a little too true, and the second is just pretty. 

Congrats grads!

*I am not happy for everyone who keeps saying they are done with finals because mine don't finish until May 3rd. My happiness for others' successes only goes so far.

speaking of female scientists...

My photo made it onto the This is What a Scientist Looks Like tumblr! I think that means I am famous now. Or just really vain.

mme curie says it best

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.” 


-Marie Curie 
(my favorite female scientist, and yes, I've seen the xkcd cartoon, and she's still my favorite :P)


via

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.

He is risen!

Aaron posted this to his facebook today, and I thought I would steal it:

“We laugh, we cry, we work, we play, we love, we live. And then we die. …
And dead we would remain but for one Man and His mission, even Jesus of Nazareth. …
He it was who died on the cross to atone for our sins. He became the firstfruits of the Resurrection. Because He died, all shall live again.”

-President Thomas S. Monson


Where I would be without the knowledge of Christ's resurrection and life after death, I don't want to know. What a precious gift it is to know that truth!

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!

i think it's the backpack

via

I don't know why I think this is so funny, but I do.

(Stolen from Sara on Pinterest. Will I ever stop talking about that website? Who knows?)

angry girlfriend mistook our car for her cheating boyfriend's?

Well, today we got scared that the random guy who towed our car after it got the windows smashed and tire slashed and keyed yesterday was in fact stealing our car.

Living in Utah County sounds really nice right now. Or, at least anywhere we can afford to own a garage.