Recently, a friend said that either people end up not keeping up with their blogs or their posts dissolve into descriptions of the sandwich they ate that day. This post is for him. I ate a fudgesicle today. It's by Weight Watchers, but it was absolutely delicious. I can't stand the feeling of the wood popsicle stick without getting goosebumps all over, so Joe served it to me in a bowl. It was really yummy. Blogger says fudgesicle is spelled wrong and should be fussbudget. What on earth is that?
Around Christmas time, Joe bought be one of my new favorite things. It's a little notebook that I write down ideas I have. The categories are things like Things to learn, Home Decor, Funny T-shirts, and Things to Give. Basically whenever I think of something I want to remember, I write it in there. I love using it!
This is the notebook I use - it also has a bookmark and pouch!
Most of what I write is related to things I'd like to make (like a piece of art for our wall or a potential Christmas gift). Some of these ideas just pop into my head, but usually I see something that inspires me - or that I just want to copy outright. :) My inspiration often comes from everyday places (a bamboo project from Panda Express) or design websites (like Dustbowl), tossed in with the occasional visit to galleries.
This week I seem to have an underlying theme in my ideas. You highlight one part by doing something to the less-important part! I'll share.
Though it'll probably be a kid or baby name (or one of the dozens of t-shirt ideas I have written down) instead of hello, I see this in my future... That is the work of Emma Smart (found via sub-studio design blog).
Then I came across bleach stenciling. I already know how the conversation at home will go... Joe: You haven't done that?!? Me: No. Have you even heard of it before? Joe: No, but it seems like the sort of thing you would have done.
I think I'll let Mom off the hook for not introducing me... kids and bleach don't mix well.
Now that I've started thinking about it, I've already got several ideas going. I think my first go will be making some contemporary / modern placemats. Placemats are so expensive, but cloth and bleach are so cheap! I may try dipping the cloth in bleach water, or using rubber bands or strips of paper.
(these pics are some quickly done idea "sketches" I made using PowerPoint)
If you're looking for bleach stencil ideas, you should check out this site - they must have had fun!
I'd love to hear some of your ideas! Have you ever tried bleach stenciling? Is it as easy as it looks?
It seems like every time Joe and I take a picture together, one of us looks good and the other looks like a dog in a car wash. I really don't think it's all in my head. The Christmas before last we took over 80 pictures of us to put on a Christmas card. Three turned out okay. THREE! If that's not enough proof, here's some more...
This looks like a normal picture of me... actually, it's likely better than I normally look:Now, let's pan out a bit and see Joe: He did just walk in from the windy outdoors, but... well, maybe it's just in my head... but when I imagine a half-crazed hungry vampire who is about to blow his cover (which I imagine fairly often), this is the look I see. It's a little hidden behind the "Is this person going to count to three? I probably have a few seconds to get positioned" face, but that hint of barely controlled frenzy is there. (Hint: cover his mouth and just look at his eyes - it's there!)
The concept for the light came from a flight that crashed and was thought to have no survivors until years later. I read a little on the site they linked to about it and found that the crash happened in 2004! I couldn't believe I hadn't heard of it, much less that a movie hadn't been made of the dramatic tale! I was also surprised that they had pictures of the plane in air, and thought it was a fluke that some family member or news photographer happened to take pictures of the plane. After several minutes of reading the history of Flight 815, I realized my mistake. Yes, I was reading the story of the popular television series, Lost. (I've never seen an episode, but Joe and I have thought about watching it all on DVD once it's finished.)
What ever happened to design inspired by nature or emotions? I guess a lot of design now is inspired by art, I just hadn't thought of a tv series that way before. What do you guys think?
I had been thinking I should work on calligraphy, so I flipped through a how-to book and read the last section on illuminating letters. I thought I should really give it a try - how neat! Knots are a major player when it comes to illuminating letters. As an example, this is from the Book of Kells (an illuminated manuscript in Latin - the four Gospels - circa 800):
I already did one Celtic knot detail on the P of Peebles on my current embroidery project. (Still working on that, if you're wondering. I'm on the final e!)
I recently read three books by Stephen Lawhead - the first two in "The Song of Albion" trilogy, and the first book in "The Celtic Crusades" triology. All of them have heavy Celtic influences. I've read Scottish and Irish stories (fable style short stories) that give insight into Celtic mythology, and I find Lawhead's books a much more enjoyable way to learn a little about that culture.
On to my first go at Celtic knotwork... I didn't have any plain white paper, so you'll have to ignore the blue lines. The one in the bottom right corner is in-progress (so you can see the steps). Here's the finished product (I think it's my favorite):I didn't use a ruler or compass, but I did make dots to keep reasonable spacing. I got the designs from a website. It was fun! Making the knots added necessary mental stimulation to the episode of Quantum Leap we were watching at the time (as well as giving my obsessive-compulsive desires a peaceful outlet). I'm sure this will work its way into a gift or art for my home eventually.
Interesting side note: As I was reading up on the history of Celtic knotwork, I found that the Christians (monks) who came to the region adopted and continued / furthered the use of the native art (knotwork) by illuminating the manuscripts they copied. Joe and I have talked a lot about Christianity interfacing with culture - specifically the artistic part of culture. It seems like this is an example of art being enhanced (instead of ignored or squelched) by Christians, which makes me curious all the more!
(Isn't Seven Tiers of Heaven a phrase? If not, then I guess I get an F in word play for yet another blog post.)
Joe and I have been married for a full 7 years! We went to Salado, Texas, to celebrate. It's a small town that gets all done up for Christmas. There are tons of art galleries and antique / home decor shops. It was a very fun trip!
We admired the count down to Christmas...
Shared some secrets....
Enjoyed 70 degree weather (isn't Texas great?)...
Stayed in the Levi Tenney House.... (It was a bed and breakfast, but we were the only ones in the whole place!)Saw many knotted trees... Explored a beautiful old chapel... And discovered many cute shops.
My favorite part is how visiting all these places gets my creative juices flowing. I had several art project ideas (as if I'd ever run out) that may make their way into our home someday. There is also a Scottish heritage to the town which got my brain churning. In case you didn't know, Peebles is a town just south of Edinburgh, Scotland, located in Peeblesshire! Isn't Peeblesshire a fun word? I've mentioned my bed-covering (comforter) project briefly... in addition to our name, it will have the crest from this town. The crest doesn't have a lion or a shield or anything you typically think of... it's got three fish. But that's for another post! Speaking of, my next post with contain examples of something that was Scottish-inspired. I know, I've got you waiting on the edge of your computer-desk-chairs!
I think not. Maybe 1958. If it were 2009, there's no way that this is in the Science section of the NY Times. It's a Q&A, and apparently someone wrote in asking if it's safe to store foods near a microwave, where they may receive "unhealthy doses of microwave emissions." Really? I mean, really?
The answer isn't much better. He starts out with "If the foods you are storing near your microwave oven are not somehow visibly changed, as if cooked, then they are not being affected by your microwave," and continues with reminding us that using a microwave does not make food radioactive or contaminated. I was hoping that the author, C. Claiborne Ray, had recently joined the Times from Cnn.com, but was saddened to discover he'd been an editor there for over 25 years. Other challenging questions tackled by Ray include "Is it dangerous for children to go through metal detectors?" and "When I walk through the woods, are the same flies following me, or is it new ones in new areas?"
We had snow Wednesday - LOTS of snow! But that's not what this post is about. Sorry.
I work in a small medical research lab. Sometimes we have students rotate through, but generally there were three of us in the lab and my boss who is also a department head (so I usually see him briefly a few times a day). Recently, the other woman in the lab graduated (with her Ph.D.) and is currently moving out of state. For her last day, we had cake and this balloon lab person waiting at her desk when she came in. I made it. Give me some credit - it's a lot harder to draw a face on a balloon than one would think. And I don't draw noses.
So now there are only two of us in the lab! It's quite different, but good. It wasn't that long ago when I was hesitant to talk about my co-workers for fear it sounded like I worked at a strip club (seriously - there was Candi, Angel, Honey, and me - Kat).
work story #2
Thursday morning I woke up not feeling great, especially when I tried to coax my body out of the warm bed. So I sleep in a little, skipped my shower, and threw on a gray sweatshirt (one of Joe's old ones, no less) and jeans for work. I don't typically interact with other people much, so it doesn't matter how I dress. (I know, that's the sort of thing they'd freak out over someone saying on What Not to Wear.) Mid morning, I saw my boss and he reminded me that we had the award service this afternoon - where I'd get my 5 year service pin (I started here as an undergrad - I'm not quite that old yet). I had completely forgotten, and I asked him if I should run home and change, or at least put on one of our scrub shirts so people would assume I was doing some sort of surgery. He said "No, they don't take pictures or anything. It's not that big of a deal."
That afternoon, I went down to the lobby a few minutes early, and a large mass of people are already listening to the Dean of the college - they had started a few minutes early! They began calling up people for the 5-year service awards. A friend who worked with me when she first got here was the first to go up. They handed her the pin and a fleece blanket (embroidered with our logo). Then there was a FLASH. If only it had been our seizure-inducing fire alarm lights. They were taking pictures of each individual with the dean. I'm not sure you understand the magnitude of this. These things have a way of showing up on the website, recruitment material, and those banners they attach to the light posts for everyone to see. My boss looked back at me, and I did my best to give an incredulous glare. He laughed and turned back around.
Well, I didn't fall down as I accepted the pin and blanket, so it could have been worse. I'm hoping I blinked for the picture, though I'm not sure I timed it right.
And that's my work story for today.
P.S. I did take lots of snow pictures. Translation for Mom: I don't want any emails asking about the snow, I'll post them when I can. ;)
P.P.S. Though quite old, there really are three other Fun at Work posts. Everyone knows a convincing made-up number should be odd. Not only is four even, it's a square number. That's making up numbers mistake #19. Catching on yet? Fine, if you don't believe me, here are one, two, and three.
It's almost time to vote! Sadly, I'm not yet 100% sure who I'll vote for in the presidential election... lots to think about there. I will figure something out and vote tomorrow, though. And I'll get a cavity filled (less exciting, equally painful).
If you're in the Brazos county, here's a link to the sample ballot which includes the propositions we'll be voting on (if you haven't already voted).
Several places seem to offer free stuff to people who vote, so I thought I might share a few. Do leave a comment if you know of other places! And I think if you voted early, it'd still be fair to take advantage of these offers.
FreeElectionDayStuff:
Starbucks - free 12 oz cup of coffee (just tell them you voted) Ben & Jerry's - free scoop of ice cream for anyone from 5-8 pm
update: Joe went to Starbucks and got a free coffee after voting this morning - you don't need an "I voted" sticker like they said on KBTX.
Not in BCS: Krispy Kreme : free star-shaped doughnut and "I voted" sticker (perhaps with purchase?) Chick-fil-A: some locations are giving away free chicken strips or chicken sandwiches - look for signs advertising it at the location
Well, Friday was a bit hard to fit in some creativity. I had to take a little time off work to help the piano mover get the piano inside (you'll see a post about that later!), and then my parents came in town and were here in time to pick me up from work. We did some stuff at our house and then helped a neighbor & her kids put up a trampoline (a big task). After that we saw Get Smart on campus. Joe, my dad and I actually saw it in theaters a while back, but it's fun to watch it with students and we liked it the first time. My mom even admitted to some funny moments. We got out of the movie in time to see the band go by for midnight yell - meaning we got home VERY late.
So I'm making up my Day 2 and I've decided to write! I'll record some random things about myself (I know you're so excited) - things I think I'll forget and find interesting later on. I think a good way of doing this will be by talking about a tv show on ABC that I really like right now and why.
The show is Pushing Daisies. It's real actors, but has some sort of fantasy feel to it (bright colors, some over-the-top characters, a narrator). {You can skip the rest of this paragraph if you want - it's just some background on the show.} One of the actors happens to be Kristen Chenoweth, my favorite Broadway singer. The basic premise is that one man, Ned, has the ability to touch a dead person / animal and bring them back to life. If he ever touches it again, it will go back to death and he can't bring it back. If he keeps something dead alive for more than one minute, something else nearby dies. Ned is a pie maker who has brought back his childhood sweetheart after she was murdered. They both work with a Private Investigator to solve murders - mostly by asking the dead guy who killed him. Olive (Kristen C.) is in love with Ned (and was before the childhood sweetheart became a part of their lives), but she doesn't know his secret ability, and Ned doesn't know she's in love with him. Okay, so now you know what the show is about. Now, how it relates to me!
My favorite part is that in three of the eleven episodes that have been aired, there are songs! Each has struck a chord with me, and I'll tell you why.
I love how Olive randomly sings. I do this, too, when people aren't close enough to hear me. Several times I've been singing in the car when my cell phone rings, and I automatically hit the button to turn off the stereo, only to realize the stereo was off and the backup music was in my head. Really, I can't count how many times I've done that. So, you can tell how I can relate to this scene:
(yikes, one of the videos it gives you as a choice to watch next has a surprising title - it's really not about that - watch it if you don't believe me!) Another song is Birdhouse in Your Soul by They Might Be Giants (TMBG). In case you didn't know, Joe and I met at a church camp called Pettijohn in Oklahoma. At this camp, I also met Jennifer (my roommate and friend in college) and Wes (already a friend of Joe's - he was in our wedding). We still keep in touch with those two, but I also met Timothy Spain, who I haven't stayed in touch with. (Tim, if you googled your name and found this - tell me!) Timothy introduced me to TMBG and I thought it was great. He was right - it's great music to play while playing spades, something I loved to do. One of their more well-known songs is Birdhouse in Your Soul, and somehow the writers worked it into an episode quite appropriately. No, the situation in the scene below is not as weird as it looks - it's weirder.
Finally, since marrying into a Scottish name, I've become more interested in all things Scottish. To be honest, I can't always tell the different between Scottish and Irish things (I know, that's horrible), but I enjoy them both. Even before Joe, I've loved pretty much any song in 6/8, so Scottish music is mostly beautiful to me. Joe and I bought a tape (those things they used to make before CDs. CDs? You remember - that's what we used before iPods) for $1 at a truck stop, expecting top-notch quality. It was a Scottish Christmas album. Since we like both types of music, it held some promise. After listening to it, we decided that some guy with some recording equipment said "My Scottish uncle is coming in town, and I think I know someone who owns some bagpipes, I should spend the weekend making an album with them!" The one beautiful exception is a song sung by the "uncle" called Morning has Broken / Child in a Manger. I looked it up, and apparently Cat Stevens recorded Morning has Broken and made it famous. Our tape has some of it in Gaelic, and well as this verse "Child in a Manger, Infant of Mary / Outcast and stranger, Lord of All / Child who inherits all our transgressions / All our demerits on his fall." Between the tune, the lyrics, and an old Scottish man's voice, I love that version of the song! So that's what I'm reminded of during this scene:
I think I'd like Pushing Daisies without these songs, but they are what brought back happy memories. Anyone else watch this show? You should! You can even rent the first two DVDs of season one and watch the other 5 episodes so far online (abc.com). They should be paying me for this. ;)
First, a big congratulations to Nobel Prize in Chemistry winners: Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Y. Tsien ( who contributed to the isolation of Green Fluorescent Protein and found ways to use it as a genetic marker)!
My first project once working full time in a lab was modifying a gene (to put in a mouse) so that all cholinergic cells would glow green. Our lab was interested in cholinergic neurons, specifically in the basal forebrain, because a loss of these neurons is exhibited in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Instead of running experiments on cells and later (using RT-PCR) finding out for sure if it was the right cell (and if that data is useful for this purpose), we could use a fluorescent scope and visually select the glowing cholinergic cells.
Given that, it was a surprise to see this as the second sentence in a New York Times article featuring the Nobel Prize in Chemistry winners:
"The fluorescent proteins are now routinely used for observing the growth and fate of specific cells like nerve cells damaged during Alzheimer’s."
You should go check out this blog. You don't have to be a cake decorator (you can even hate cakes of all kinds) to enjoy the posts. You should start by checking out some of the "Fan Favorites" on the right hand side. Let me tell you, I've needed a good laugh the last couple of days and this has been great. :)
C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet. These are a few topics I found interesting that we didn't have time to discuss at a ladies book club. Several of us had different versions of the book, but the pages seemed very close (even hardcover). I figured I'd post them here just in case anyone reads the book and wanted to add some comments about some of this.
Pleasure - Chapter 12 Chapter 12 is probably the one that has stuck with me the most since reading the book a few years ago. Here's how part of it goes: "But the pleasure he must be content only to remember?" "That is like saying 'My food I must be content to eat.' " "I do not understand." "A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered. You are speaking, Hman, as if the pleasure were one thing and the memory another. It is all one thing.... When you and I met, the meeting was over very shortly, it was nothing. Now it is growing something as we remember it. But still we know very little about it. What it will be when I remember it as I lie down to die, what it makes in me all my days till then - that is the real meeting. The other is only the beginning of it." and later... "And how could we endure to live and let time pass if we were always crying for one day or one year to come back - if we did not know that every day in a life fills the whole life with expectation and memory and that these are that day?"
Danger - Also, later in the same chapter (page 76): If response to Ransom questioning him about the hnakra, Hyoi says "I do not think the forest would be so bright, nor the water so warm, nor love so sweet, if there were no danger in the lakes."
Unity - On pages 81-82, after killing the hnakra: "They had stood shoulder to shoulder in the face of an enemy, and the shapes of their heads no longer mattered." I just think there's something interesting here about the unity found from fighting a common enemy. Ruling ourselves - On page 102, Ransom talking with the learned sorns: "They cannot help it. There must be rule, yet how can creatures rule themselves? Beasts must be ruled by hnau and hnau by eldila and eldila by Maleldil. These creatures have no eldila. They are like one trying to lift himself by his own hair - or one trying to see over a whole country when he is level with it - like a female trying to beget young on herself." Later Oyarsa established that there were eldila on earth, but without the acknowledgment they have on Malacandra.
And it's not because there's been nothing to blog about, either! (I dedicate that double negative to my mother- and sister-in-laws, both English teachers.) I even have a bunch of pictures to go along with the Peebles' current events!
Until I actually upload those and take the time to write about them, I've decided to give you a list. It's a list of things that make me feel worse than realizing I haven't blogged about life lately. In no particular order, but still numbered:
1. I work really hard on some project and the first thing someone says (okay, I'll be honest, probably anything said in the first 2 minutes) is negative. Why do I want approval so much, anyway?
2. I say "Really, don't worry about it" for the kah-gillionth time when someone continuously apologizes for something for which one "oops, sorry!" would have been more than sufficient. (I don't just feel annoyed, I feel bad that I can't communicate that I'm really not bothered by something. I feel like people unecessarily apologize to me often.)
3. We're parked on the road in front of a friend's house and I open the door over their lawn to get in the passenger side. I sit in the car. It goes down - a lot. So much, in fact, that the door is now stuck in their grass and I can't pull the door closed without getting back out and trying again with the door not opened so wide. Our friends wave goodbye as we finally drive off.
I wish I could say #3 had only happened once or twice.
Well, I've got a few other things I've committed to getting done asap, so no promises on the blog other than I will try harder. Like another blogging friend recently said, I'm hoping that writing a little will help get me going again!
Make me feel better and post a comment of something that makes you feel worse than me taking almost 3 weeks away from posting on here! That should be really easy to think of something for everyone other than my parents, for whom my silence is more of a tragedy. Here's an example: You're happy to see you have just enough cereal left for breakfast. You pour milk in your bowl and then realize the milk has gone bad. Later you begin to think you shouldn't have eaten it.
It doesn't have to be funny. If you're unsure, here's an easy fill-in-the-blank sentence: "I feel worse when I have to change __________ than when you don't post." Fill in the blank with something like a diaper, a flat tire, or my toothbrush.
If you frequent this blog, you know my issues with spelling. I had high hopes for this article, but the writer did not go anywhere interesting.
Here's the one slightly-interesting (to me) paragraph: Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Carnegie, Teddy Roosevelt and even Noah Webster, father of American lexicography, all lobbied for spelling reform, their reasons ranging from traumatic childhood spelling experiences to the hope that easier communication would promote peace. In 1906, Mark Twain lobbied the Associated Press to use phonetic spelling. "The heart of our trouble is with our foolish alphabet," he once wrote. "It doesn't know how to spell, and can't be taught."
It went downhill from there. I guess that's what I get for trying to find thought-provoking articles on cnn.com.
We've been working on the house a LOT, so almost all of my record-keeping / posting energy is going toward that. I'm very excited for it to be, say, Tuesday. We're doing a ton of painting right now and we'll put the floors in this weekend, so I think the house (at least inside) will be nearly unrecognizable by Tuesday. We'll have the rest of the week to move in, which is longer than we've ever had to move... but we have roughly zero boxes packed as of this morning. I like the idea of moving one room at a time and then unpacking it there, but I'm not sure that will work out - we at least need to move the big stuff all at once.
Joe got be a surprise, and it's sitting in the back seat of our car with a blanket over it. He said he got it on craigslist, so my best guess was these incredibly cute baby geese. But it didn't move or make any noise and Joe didn't crack the windows. (interesting note: the post said "Very pretty geese; great for weed control, looks, meat" meat?!? These guys are too cute to mention that!) So I have no idea what it is. I like surprises! :)
We closed on our house this morning! I think in my dreams it involved less signing papers and more us standing in front of a big sign with balloons getting pictures taken as the sellers handed over the keys. If I owned a title company, that's what I'd do. They did have a candy bowl, which was a move in the right direction. I'm only a little sad that we didn't have a "handing over the keys" moment (yes, I actually brought my camera hoping for one, even if there weren't balloons). Oh well... we're now homeowners!
As a little tidbit, I'd like to share what happens when advertisers are asked to market to scientists. I'm actually embarrassed that I'm in the target audience, and can totally relate to times when my hand hurts from too much pipetting.
I'll let you know next time a boy-band bursts into our lab and takes us away to a beach. Maybe next week.
Joe and I have only watched one show on tv this week, and this was it: WIPEOUT. We watched the whole thing, cracking up most of the time.
One of the blogs that I follow posted this today. The show is stupid, I know, I know! But the announcers are soooo funny. Give it a few minutes, and maybe you'll be laughing, too.
