Labor Day: Sunday-Monday

Happy Labor Day!

Yesterday was a day of church, lounging, and games.

It started out with sleeping in until 10 and then church at 11. Our ward is super friendly! We constantly had people introducing themselves to us. We met a bunch of other couples that don't have kids yet either so we instantly bonded; HOORAY! We ended up getting invited to someone's house for dessert and games with a bunch of other people, so we ended up ditching our BBQ picnic in Central Park and had a great time! It was fun to find other couples in the same situation that we we're in, i.e. grad students, early 20's, no kids, love for food..haha! We have to find Cranium (favorite game) and bring that next week.

Today...I actually had to go to school. BOOOOO! I have homework for a class due on Wednesday, and since I'm going to be in the lab all day tomorrow, I had to get it done today. But, my textbook isn't here yet, so I had to go to the library to get it and do my homework. I felt like the lone, sole loser in the library, because it was empty (like it should be!). Luckily, that didn't take too long and we ended up BBQing in our backyard. Ok, well Seth did. I just lied on the couch and watch RHNJ until it was ready. He's the BBQ master in this house (and that is totally OK with me!!!!). We were going to take it over to Central Park for a picnic, but we were too hungry and lazy and ate it right then and there on the living room floor (we don't have a table yet.).

But it was deeeeelicious! Seth can grill up some good stuff! I'm trying to get him to do it for dinner everyday...hehe.

Here's the master chef:

And the food...YUM!

I wish I had a 4 day weekend every week. Life would be so much better! :)

**Random note: my stomach hasn't gotten used to the time zone. I get reeeaaaaallly hungry around 11 or 12 at night. Like right now. I don't know what the deal is but I am soooo craving some deep dish pizza right now. Bad bad bad!**

Labor Day Weekend: Saturday

8AM on Saturday morning was spent like this:

I hate laundromats. I always feel like people are going to steal my clothes. And it costs about 3x's more than TVA laundry. :(

But the chores ended there. We ended up having a great day today!

We spent most of today exploring Central Park! Or at least just some of it. It it so big we probably just explored about 1/4 of it.

Its just 2 blocks East from our house, so we just walked on over.

It is soooo gorgeous! It's a nice break from the city.

You could honestly walk forever. This park is so big its going to take us a long time to see the whole thing!

What I loved about it were the designated bike and running paths that go all throughout the park. There were tons of bikers and runners everywhere! I can't wait to start running here (after dawn and before dusk of course because I don't want to get mugged/killed!). It will be a nice change from dodging cars on the Kam highway in Hawai'i! It looks so serene and peaceful to run through. That will start Monday...hopefully.

We stumbled upon the Central Park Zoo. It was tiny, and reminded me of the Honolulu Zoo. We had lots of fun roaming around and checking out the animals.

After we were done with the zoo we ended up in Midtown (great shopping!).

And guess what we saw...

THE CUBE (Seth's new best friend)!

Apple designers are geniuses. The entire store was underground. The cube is just and elevator/stairway that you go down to get into the actual store. The design was so intriguing

that we just had to go down in it even though it was incredibly crowded.

And next to the cube was FAO Schwarz!

**This guy in the front was talking to the customers through those stuffed animals. haha**

3 stories of paradise!

My personal fav was the level with all of the candy.

Lego Chewy!

And we saw the famous Big Piano!

Here are the "professional" big piano players (iphone video):

(Sorry the video is vertical...if I turned it horizontal it wouldn't get their heads in the frame and it looked funny.)

We ended the day by eating a deeeeelicious grilled hot dog! I meant to take a picture of it but my hunger took over and I ate it first. Yum.

Oh yeah, and we saw another fatty! (I miss my Fatty!)

Wow that was a lot of pictures. I just thought I would upload them and post them while I had time. Tomorrow after church we're going to have a picnic back in Central Park!

Have a great Labor Day weekend! :)

Lab time

I've started working in the Immunology lab!

We actually don't have to declare a lab or a thesis advisor until October, but I've decided to get a head start on things. My thesis advisor says I have to get started on finding my thesis work in order to finish and publish my findings in 2 years.

My lab is great. The PI is great and the people seem very nice. I have my own personal section of the lab, which includes some equipment like my own pipettes and centrifuge, as well as my own desk, shelves for my work, lab bench, and locker. Yay--I'm an adult!

All I'm doing now is learning protocols, testing procedures, how to use the equipment, and getting to know the lab. After that is done (in a week or so) then I will start on my own project, involving V(D)J recombination and the proteins involved with it. I'll be working on understanding a mutant of Artemis, a protein involved in helping to create junctional diversity of an antibody by cleaving a hairpin loop in V(D)J recombination. Interesting.....right? haha. The goal is to become the head publisher of my findings. Lets hope that happens! I'll be working on some group projects in addition to that as well.

Anyway, I'm excited to finally put a practical use to all of the stuff I have been slaving over for the last 4+ years. The only downfall is that I'll be there 40+ hours a week. I might not feel so happy about it a year from now when the lab becomes my 2nd home.

Here is the view from the lab:

We're on the 12th floor. Exciting!

WICKED

Seth's mom Pattie came to visit us for a few days, and we had so much fun! We did so many things, but the highlight of the trip was going with her to see the AMAZING Broadway musical WICKED!

We got there a little early, so we spent some time walking around Times Square.

**Notice the super casual footwear...I still haven't adapted to wearing shoes yet (blisters!!!). I carry my heels in my purse and then put them on right before I get to where I'm going. I do this for school, church, and anywhere else that requires me to wear shoes.**

We also stopped at the Hershey store...where I found the biggest Hershey bar ever. 31 servings of chocolate. Yum. Hello diabetes!

... and a giant syrup bottle!

We had so much fun. WICKED was incredible.

I've always listened to the soundtrack, so it was just amazing to see it actually performed on Broadway. I actually got chills while the cast was singing "Defying Gravity." Now I can't get the soundtrack out of my head--it is SO good! This makes me just want to save every penny to go see Broadway shows. Forget food and other things we spend $$ on, I just want to go to another show, haha!

Thanks for coming to visit us Pattie! We had so much fun and we love you---thanks for everything! (BTW I've been wearing my "I heart OZ" shirt everywhere! haha)

Magnolia Bakery

Magnolia Bakery has become my new favorite place to eat.

It has the best pastries I've ever had; from cookies to banana bread pudding, to cheesecake!

But my favorite are the cupcakes...

I can't get enough of these! The vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting are my favorite, but I also love the red velvet, caramel, banana, and german chocolate cupcakes too!

What's so dangerous about this place is that it is on the same block as our apartment, meaning its just a few steps away whenever I want a sugar fix...which can be quite often. Bad bad bad!

My friends that are from NYC keep telling me about good places to eat here, and this was one of them! I am literally eating everything in sight. Lets hope the constant walking everywhere is helping me keep the lbs off. Tomorrow we're off to find a burger joint that's supposed to be amazing! Oh and I need to find Crumbs too.

I LOVE NYC FOOD!

(**Noelle you would love it here!**)