Taco Saturday!

Yes, it is Taco Saturday! We sort of have a new tradition where we make Tacos for dinner on Saturdays---I love it! Unfortunately, I got a little too excited and ate all of the tacos before I even had the thought to take a picture. Oops.

I am SO happy it is Saturday. One of the reasons being that I didn't have to deal with lab today. For some reason this week made me hate science. I'm not even really sure why. I think that my lab work was too demanding of me this week and I have just had it. Ohhhhh boy. One positive lab note: my data this week looks pretty good and I'm still on track for a publication.

I'm happy to report that I have developed a new habit of getting up at 6am to go running around central park! The first week or two I literally had to drag myself out of the house, but after I developed a little more strength, I've started to enjoy it! At 6am its not hot out yet, and central park has a gorgeous 6.02 mile road that outlines the park, and has trees to shade the joggers lane the whole time. Its actually a really nice thing to do in the morning. Who wouldn't want to run in a gorgeous place like this?



I hope that I can keep this habit up---though I will be honest: I'm increasing my exercise so I can eat more food! There is more delicious food in this city than I can handle! Or my waistline, really..hehe.

Today, in addition to making/eating delicious tacos, we went for a nice walk in central park! It was overcast today, so the weather was bearable. We got some vanilla custard at Loeb boathouse, and just wandered around. It was such a nice and relaxing day.





Now I just have to do some last minute baking for my primary kids tomorrow! Lets hope the cookies make it through sacrament meeting....!



[Note: I just realized tomorrow is fast sunday. Gah. Now I have a billion cookies to give to no one.]

Hello, Monday!

Helloooooo everyone!

I can't believe its August. The summer has just flown by! It is slightly sad to think that I'll be starting school again in just a few weeks. ugh.

This week involved:

-The weekend was pretty boring for us---I was so tired and worn out from that week in lab that I had to muster up some energy (with some help from a diet coke) to go out and see an early movie with Seth (noooooo I'm already turning into an old lady!). We ended up seeing Captain America, which was certified Fresh (Rotten Tomatoes)---it was pretty good, but really cheesy. I was half asleep the whole time anyway. I'm just looking forward to seeing The Help next week! EEEeeeee!!

-Church in Manhattan is always interesting. People are always coming and going (the majority of our ward every week is visitors), and everyone is brilliant and a genius. My favorite part of church is how people who I've met before ask me if I'm visiting. I was in Relief Society, and the President was going around the room to introduce visitors, and she asked me to introduce myself! I never know what to say in those situations, so I just say, "I'm kind of a visitor?" just so I don't say "Um, yes, I've been in the ward for a year and met you like 3 times." haha. Oh, Manhattan wards...

-Seth and I are primary teachers again. This time for the 7-8 year olds. I swear these kids are smarter than me. They are so cute! One kid told us that when he grows up he wants to be a museum curator!! How cute is that?

-I saw a hobo pee on the sidewalk right in front of me. I almost puked.

-We made tin foil dinners this week! YUM! It's been so long since we've made these.



-We go to CA next week! Noelle is getting married and I get to see my Fatty love. This is a pic of him with his new collar. He's so fat that the biggest collars barely fit around his neck. Look at those ROLLS!



-Some experimental baking this week:

S'mores cookies:


Red velvet swirl cheesecake brownies:


Fish cupcakes:


The good thing about being in a lab of hungry people and having a primary class full of hungry kids is that there are always people around to eat the things I make! If you are in the area, I always have extra, so stop by!

Summer Fun

So I am coming off of a week of vacation and no lab. In fact probably the only reason I'm blogging is because I'm in lab right now in between incubation times!

This last week has been awesome, and so nice for us to forget about work/school for a while and to get out and enjoy the sun....until it got to 105 degrees last week...then I was begging to get back into my freezing cold lab.

One of the highlights of the week was a weekend with the Ricks (and Danny)! They were nice enough to let us come out to Spencer's parents house in Westchester to go wake boarding/water skiing. It was our first time out of the city and it was so gorgeous out there. Its so green and lush that it seems like you're in another country and you can't believe you just left the city (and apparently Beyonce and JayZ live out there!). What was amazing was that the lake we went to had NO ONE on it--we had it all to ourselves! We both agreed that this was one of the best things we've done in a long time!





Danny looking suspicious...





The Ricks are both pros at water skiing/wake boarding, but it was my first time trying to water ski. I got up on like my 4th try? Seth didn't take any pictures of it....though he got a video of my awkward attempts, which I refuse to post! haha. Hey, I'm just happy I eventually got up.

Seth went on the wake board, and took a lot of seaweed with him.





We also jumped off a fun rope swing!



Seth climbed to this freakishly unstable branch to jump off. Sorry, there was no way I was going up there. I was contempt with jumping off of the trunk.







And of course, tubing was awesome!

Seth and Danny the Anchor:





Erica and I:





Afterwards, we went raspberry picking! Yum!




...and then made my new favorite treat: Raspberry Raptures!!!!!!!!!!!!! [drool].





It was such a fun weekend! I have a billion more pictures to upload from the past week, and they're all on my iphone (by a billion I mean more like 600). If you've ever dealt with iphone pics before, its irritating because you have to email them to yourself, then download them, and then do editing/uploading on to a photohosting website...ehhh..! If I ever get around to it then I might actually post something! :)

Well, happy hump day! I went back to lab today only to get slammed with a ton of work. Oy. Only two more weeks until my sisters wedding and I get to see my FATTTTTTTYYYYYY!!!!

4th of July Weekend!

And thus ends the week of Claude in NYC.





That kid has no inhibitions. He will talk to anyone, ask for anything, go anywhere, etc. We had all of these plans to show him around the city, but we always woke up in the morning to an empty apartment....Claude would just take off in the morning and wander around the city! He would get his directions by just asking the nearest person. He literally went EVERYWHERE in the city. It was always interesting to talk to Claude when he would get home because we were always surprised with the long list of places he went that day and the people he met.

He met all of our friends at a 4th of July get-together at the Snows. They had an amazing view over the Hudson for the Macy's fireworks show.





There was lots of good food and good friends!









Claude took this picture:



The fireworks were awesome. It looked like the city was on fire! Thanks to the Snows, we had practically a perfect view of the whole show.



The craziest part was the exodus of people afterwards. From where we were, it looked like the entire city was evacuating. I'm SO glad we didn't have to deal with all of the crowds!
(If you look closely you can see at every intersection there are a billion people crossing the street.)





It was a fun weekend! Although I am happy to have my tiny apartment back to myself and CLEAN...I will miss Claude! He always makes us laugh and is a good friend.



Note: He claims that he doesn't like the In N Out logo, and refuses to wear it in the front. Such a fashionista.

In the words of Bruno Mars...

...Today I don't feel like doing anything...



I just want to plop down in the sun like Fatty and take an afternoon nap.

Instead, I will pretend that I am doing something in lab while I oogle over these pretties:











Happy pseudo-Friday!

BTW, tomorrow is my meeting with my PI. Its after our 3 hour lab meeting (which I don't have any data to present...just to add fuel to the fire...), which means she will be hungry and grumpy. eeeek! I keep telling myself that it will be over soon and then I will just take off for the weekend. Though she might just eat me alive. Wish me luck...!