Stingers

Does this picture make you a bit uneasy? It should. I think they are hornets or some sort of angry creature with a stinger... and that little pow-wow that they're having on my porch is right above the deck chairs that i used to enjoy eating my breakfast in. Not anymore. The good news is, in the evenings, they're not so active, so a couple times last week I was able to relax and read for a bit in the nice summer air.

Dear Landlady- please get rid of the bees. Thank you, Michelle

Rosy Cheeks

Mom and dad used to tell me that when I was a little girl, my cheeks used to get really rosy and pink when I was tired. They would ask me if I was tired and my cheeks would say it all...

Today I worked all day. Woke up early (before 7 am) and left the lab around 5 pm. I got home and my cheeks were soooo pink. I think I'm tired... actually, I know I'm tired... I'm beat down exhausted. Took an hour long snooze when I got home, and if it is at all possible, they are more rosy now. In my more advanced age, I only get rosy cheeks when I'm really super tired.

Mom thinks it's cute that my cheeks still do this little trick... not that I can control it, but I'm not so sure how I feel about it... I guess it contributes to my charm!

Favorite Line

An Indian friend of mine gave me a book to read called Eat Pray Love (by Elizabeth Gilbert) because she read it when she was in graduate school and she felt that it helped her on her quest for self-examination about her future. Since I am at that stage in my positioning as a graduate student, she felt that it could offer me some of the same perspective. Since it was an #1 New York Times Bestseller, I decided to give it a whirl.

I enjoyed the book. I did. It took me quite a long time to get through it because 1. I don't have a lot of free time to read 2. I'm a very slow reader. I have to say, I don't agree with many of the things said in the book, but I did feel that if aspects are applied to my faith in Christ, I could be better off. That is how I decided to use this woman's memoirs of her journeys through Italy, India and Indonesia.

I liked the third section of the book the best. This section is about her quest to seek balance in her life between the spiritual and the living. It's about her time in Bali and her learning, I think, to love herself. Anyhow, in her 4th story about Bali, she begins talking about the three questions a Balinese will almost certainly ask you. That question is "Are you married?"

I love what she says:

"They really want you to say yes. It's such a relief to them when you say yes. If you're single, it's better not to say so directly. And I really recommend that you not mention your divorce at all, if you happen to have had one. [...] If you are a single woman traveling through Bali and somebody asks you, "Are you married?" the best possible response is "Not yet." This is a polite way of saying, "No," while indicating your optimistic intentions to get that taken care of just as soon as you can."

"Even if you are eighty years old, or a lesbian, or a strident feminist, or a nun, or an eighty-year-old strident feminist lesbian nun who has never been married and never intends to get married, the politest possible answer is still: "Not yet.""

I thought this was great. i laughed so hard at this... Gilbert's writing style is so real... I love it. If you've got the time, read the book. You'll have fun with it.

A Bloody Mess

So, no doubt you've seen the pictures of my fun little kayaking adventure... what I left out, so as not to mingle good times with injuries, was that I got a bad gash on my finger from pulling the paddle in too close to the boat… there was something protruding from the boat itself and then it met my finger. I had a flap of skin moving around and a ton of blood gushing from it. As you can see, it is still ugly. :(

Girls are supposed to have pretty fingers. I do not. I’ve decided that pretty hands and fingers are for people who don’t use them properly.

Right before my body started shaking due to blood loss and/or the mere sight of blood (yes, I'm a bit of a wus when it comes to blood):

About two hours afterwards:

Tuesday (3 days later):

Hopkinton State Park

Today was so nice out. Really the nicest day of summer that we've had. I tried calling some people, but was unable to recruit anyone to go have some fun, so I decided to hit the lake myself. I went to Hopkinton State Park, it took me about 35 minutes (with traffic) to get there, but from about 1:30 to 5 I was chillin. I started my adventure by renting a kayak and heading out for some paddling fun. I had a really great time. The water was great. I even docked the boat for a bit to take a dip in the water. After some paddling around, I took my chair and book and just hung out at different spots at the park just checking out the different places to go. Check out my pictures!

On the Lake:



After my scandalous swim (I'm not sure if I was allowed to be swimming, but those of you who know me know that I can hardly resist a body of water calling my name!)


Resting Spots where I sat and read and relaxed:
First spot, in a meadow next to the lake, secluded, with pretty flowers all around me.


2nd Spot, leaning against a tree on a rock. I moved because there was a woman attempting to breastfeed a not-so-quiet baby behind me and some really "interesting" females jumped in the quiet water that I sat in front of.



3rd spot: Perfect! Until a mosquito the size of a small bird landed on my shoulder and take a snack on my sweet blood. But that's when I decided it was time to swim again. It's good for the soul.

Travelocity Gnome

The Travelocity Gnome has been a lot of cool places. He doesn't move, but he's got all the accessories.

I think that the commercials for this guy is awesome. I am very amused by him. Good job to the team who thought him up!

Straps

Problem: water bath sonicators at work won't stay closed. The model was poorly designed and the handle comes off all the time so we end up using tape to keep it shut, which is only inefficient but also only good for about one or two uses and super frustrating in the BSL3 lab because you can't always get the tape off of your gloves.

Solution: I was at home and threw something away that had a nylon strap attached to it... I don't remember what the strap was for, but I saw it and thought to myself, 'I could use this at work...'. So, I bought some velcro (the sticky kind so I could stick it to the walls of the sonicator) and I busted out my sewing machine and I got to work!!

I decided to color-code the ends of the straps so that people would regularly open and close on only one end (to keep the straps working strong), so one end had red color and the other was black (so you couldn't see it). I started going and about the time I had put 3 pieces of velcro on ends, by sewing machine started acting up. I took off the needle only to find that you should NOT use sticky velcro with your sewing machine. The speed of up-and-down sewing made the needle get all gunky and act up. So- off to Walmart for some non-sticky velcro (which only came in army green for some reason). Cleaned my needle then back to business. Everything was running much more smoothly. I put 1-inch squares of the soft half of the velcro on both ends of the same side of the strap. Then I put 2-inch sections of the rough part of the velcro on the sonicator itself so that you can tighten or loosen the strap if you want to.

You should have seen Jinhee's face when I showed him these. He's a post-doc in the lab and is the other major user of the sonicator other than myself. It was like a kid at Christmas... he thinks I should get some sort of prize for this, which I thought was cute.

The process:


The end result:

All in a day's work

Today was Sunday... a very busy day. I was considering spending some time at the gym, but there was a lot of housework to be done and so after church, I decided to stay at home and bust out some chores... yesterday I had already dusted the entire downstairs, swept the floors, washed my car and mowed the lawn before heading out to Art in the Park. So what was left for today was washing the windows outside and inside, cleaning all the molding along the floors (yuck!), take out the trash, paint the bathroom and the trim!! (yup, you heard me), then clean that bathroom along with mopping the floors, and then to wind down at the end of the day, I took out my sewing machine to make some straps for the sonicator at work. (I realize that sounds weird... so I'll explain another time!)

But as you can see above, our bathroom is looking good! It really was gross. I had painted it January 2008 complete with primer and two coats of this light sea blue color that I chose. But the room gets used constantly and it really needed a touch up! The trim had not been painted since before my roommate Lynn bought the place, so it was even cracking a bit. I caulked the cracks, along with the shower and sink, let it dry and then "white-washed" it! It really looks so nice and fresh! Exactly the same, but fresher!! I didn't have to buy anything but caulking and a roller because I had leftover paint from the original paint job. So I just brought the can of paint and what I used for the trim down to Ace Hardware and they shook it up for me! :-) Awesome!

Art in the Park

On Saturday, my friends John and Marianne and I went down to Elm Park in Worcester to take a look at an outdoor art exhibit that will be on display until early October. It was an absolutely perfect day for it and we saw some cool things like planets made out of metal scraps and gazebos made out of old pianos... most everything there was made out of scraps. It was pretty cool! We had a very nice afternoon finished off with dinner at the Sole Proprietor. Here's some pictures of my favorites:
This gazebo made from an old piano was my favorite by far!!!



John loved the VW bus that was turned into a toaster. It was complete with a button on one end to make the toast come out, and on the other end, a dial to make your toast darker or lighter!

This nest and eggs was all made from debris that resulted from our major ice storm this past December that left thousands of people, including me, without power for over a week!


I thought these ivy planters were pretty cool. There is a solar powered lantern hanging above the English ivy that is growing there... I bet it's super cool at night!

I love to Laugh

This is a picture that was taken by complete randomness at my brother's wedding... I LOVE to laugh. Do you ever make yourself laugh? Last night, I was on a role. Honestly. And I couldn't stop. Even after I turned out the lights, I had a constant stream of silliness running through my brain. Usually when this happens, I'm thinking about somebody I know rather well who I want to tease endlessly. I can take an encounter or a conversation and turn it into a sitcom. Truth is, I will laugh for a good hour or so depending on my mindset.

Quote of the Day

So, I was just talking to one of my best friends ever... anyhow, she was saying that she had a job interview last Thursday and they asked her what her 25-year goal plan was. We were laughing because we'll be in our early 50's at that time, so we hadn't really thought about it. So I told her, 'well, I'll tell you what my 5 and 10 year plans are: 5 years, meet a nice guy. 10 years, maybe have a kid or two. Everything else is a bonus.' But as all good chats must go, she had to leave...

Danielle: "Gotta go, time to feed Nico"
me: "wait, he needs to eat right this second?!?!?" (when you read this, think of me saying it as if I don't understand what she is saying)
Danielle: "ya, it's like 7pm here and he doesn't feed himself"
me: "bummer, we just started chatting"
Danielle: "ya... (laughter)"
me: "good thing kids are in the 10 year plan and not the 5!"

...complete and utter laughter from both of us...

That is the quote of the day, "wait, he needs to eat right now?!?" ah Michelle Michelle...

Preparations

I must get ready for my week in the lab. That usually means that I am on the go 24/7 and have to be ready. I don't like to buy my lunches and dinners for two reasons: It's not as healthy compared to what I would bring and I'm too cheap to buy lunch when bringing my own is about 1/3rd the cost. So, Last night I...

Packed the gym bag and put it in my trunk
Chopped half a watermelon
Washed and tore one head of lettuce
Browned 1.27 lb hamburger meat with taco seasoning
shredded 2 cups cheddar cheese
peeled and chopped one bag of carrots and one bag of celery
chopped 2 bell peppers
grilled 3 chicken breasts
washed and prepped 1 bag of cilantro
washed 1 pint blueberries and 1 bag of cherry tomatoes on the vine.
Cooked 1.5c brown rice

I am officially ready for a week of chicken/rice/green bean dinners and salad with taco meat for lunch... yogurt with blueberries for breakfast... and watermelon and carrots for snacks... all week. I have no problem eating the same thing every day. Doesn't bother me a bit. By Wednesday I'll be ready for a bit of a mix up, but the good news is, all I have to do is add one new thing and we're there!!

Turning into my Parents

Well, it's happening. I am officially turning into my folks... in some ways... although the slightly nerdier version. But I will say this, I sorta love it. It dawned on me this morning when I was helping out a friend who needed some things for an apartment that she's only using for a month before she heads back to Dublin. So I had her come over to go "shopping" in my basement for things she could use. As she left, I realized that it was something my folks would have done for someone in the same situation... down to the exclaiming of "well all it does is sit here anyhow, may as well get some use out of it!". My parents are good people... I would be lucky to turn out like them.

Movie Boyfriend: Bradley Cooper

So, I've never been the kind of girl to obsess over guys in real life or in movies. But, I was having a conversation with some girlfriends and we were talking about who our "movie boyfriend" would be if we were to choose one. When I went to see The Hangover with some friends and I got to tell you, something about Bradley Cooper in that black suit made me keenly aware of his existence. 6'1", blue eyes, educated at Georgetown University... hmmm... born in '75 (not too old for me) :-) So, he is officially my 'movie boyfriend'.


He is SO unbelievably sexy. I bet he's got nice arms... :-) I've seen him in other movies and thought he was handsome with a bit of a 'rough around the edges' kind of look... which I like. I also really like the sorta preppy look mixed in with that... his friend Justin Bartha on the bike next to him isn't so bad either...


I will NEVER mention this again. It's unrealistic to think that any guy in real life that is like that would be something to want anyhow... the ego, I'm sure, would be WAY too much to handle. I just wanted to say, I like the look... I don't sit around wasting time thinking about boys in movies, but this one caught my eye...