Ranger Baseball

This week I got a chance to go to a baseball game with some new work friends the Texas Rangers played the Detroit Tigers. I am not typically a huge baseball fan I tend to view baseball season a the lull before football season starts. I can occasionally enjoy a baseball game but I have been watching more of the games on TV these days. I can be a huge sports fan and I am rooting for Rangers to win the world series this year. 

Walking up to the ballpark

 We had some pretty good seats right off the third base foul line on the third deck. I will be the first to admit it was a little on the warm side when we first got there but I adjusted to the heat pretty soon.

The view from my seat while I ate hotdogs and drank a bud light or two.

 We watched the majority of the game from the third deck but once the sun went down and more people had left we moved ourselves down to the first deck right behind home plate. Now this is how I could enjoy baseball, the view was the most fantastic thing I have seen in a while.

You could really see the action, this was amazing. It was also much much cooler down in these seats.

At the bottom center of this pic you can see just the top of a woman's head. She was wearing a red visor that said mom with the O being a baseball. She also had the most fantastic bangs over the top of her visor. I had already taken the pics by the time I noticed or I would have gotten an even better shot of this true Texas style.

I really enjoyed the game that night there was so much awesomeness happening at the game. The lady with the awesome bangs, there was a guy behind us talking about how much he and his family spent on dinner and his wife wondered if they would have grilled their veggie dogs up for Dollar Hot-dog night. I had a good little laugh about that one and then realized that a veggie dog was probably better than the two hotdogs that I ate.

The view from the good seats that we sat in at the end of the game.

Anytime the rangers scored these four girls ran across this patch of grass with their Texas flags. This was pretty awesome to watch although I do wander how much they get paid for this ridiculousness. 

Next to the guy in the red down by the field is NOLAN RYAN the owner  of the Rangers. I saw him pitch once as a child and he was fantastic but it was amazing to see him again.

All in all it was a fantastic game to watch, the Rangers won 13-9! So this was a good game to become a true Texas Ranger's Fan! I am sure that there will be more games in my future and hopefully I will get to sit a little lower down because that is how I truly enjoy the game.

A Saturday with Lily in Pics

On Saturday I try to spend as much time with Lily as humanly possible. This time I tried to document this is pictures and I am going to try and share the special day that we spend together I really love getting a chance to hang out with Lily when it is just the two of us. I think she had a great time and really enjoyed going all of these places with me.

The first thing I did in the morning was make blueberry scones, which are my most favorite breakfast food ever. I try and make them often but they are a little fattening. I will be posting the recipe soon so be sure and check back for that one but here is a picture to make your mouth water.

The most amazing blueberry scones ever.

After breakfast I let lily outside and she started chasing the squirrels, which I totally love.

Here she is chasing the squirrels oven the fence at the back of the yard, doing here cute little barking

I decided to rock this outfit for the day, I really love the combo of blue and pink. 

 Once I was dressed and ready Lily and I headed to the Arlington Farmers Market, which is dog friendly. There was a bunch of cute stuff inside the building that sold bread and some jams. There might have even been a few trinket items but I was more interested in the produce sold out front.

 This is Lily after saying, really Mom the farmers market they kept petting me. I think she had a good time although I do wish there had been a little more variety in the produce or just more stuff to buy. I really love buying produce I think I am going to check out the Dallas Farmers Market one of these days or maybe just another one close by.

After the Farmers Market

 After our Farmers Market adventure I decided that Lily and I would check out the Arlington Dog Park. It has been a long time since I took Lily to a park and we have never been to a dog park. I will be honest I wasn't too sure how much she was going to love it but I think we both had a nice time at the park.

The park had a large grassy area for the dogs to run around in and play with one another. There were several dogs at the park, there wasn't a whole lot of playing with the other dogs for Lily.

After we played in the yard a little bit I saw there were trails at the back for us to roam around in and play. These trails were a great place for us to practice our off the leash skills. Lily was really good at this and seemed to enjoy roaming around never straying too far from me and coming when she was called.

On the trails

This is a squirrel that was barking at us, yes barking or at least that is what it sounds like

Tired girl from playing around at the dog park.

 After the dog park we headed home, mainly because I had to pee really bad. I did consider peeing in the woods at the dog park but I thought that was a little uncivilized so we just left and headed home. Once we got home and I went to the bathroom I unloaded our haul from the farmers market.

I got cucumber, cantaloupe, tomatoes, squash, croutons (super yummy) and some strawberries.

 After unloading the haul I made a tomato and cucumber sandwich and headed outside for a little time in the sun. I laid out for a while on this awesome mat that my folks gave me for graduation. It wasn't too hot outside, it wasn't cool by any means but I didn't melt my face off either.

Laying out reading my glamour magazine and listening to a little music the only thing missing was a drink

 After laying out and reading for a little while, I decide that it was time for Lily's bath. So I gave her a both outside in the yard, which was way better than the baths she used to get in the tub when we lived in St. Louis. She didn't really enjoy this part of the day but I did since she was starting to smell a little like an outside dog.

Time for a post-bath cookie

Super clean dog.

 At the end of the day we just hung out around the house and just enjoyed being together. I really do love any chance to get to hang out with the dog. I know there will be many more dog adventures in the future, guess we will see what this summer in Texas holds for us.

Using lots of pics makes this a much longer process and perhaps even in reading this, sorry about that.

Week wrap up and weekend plans

This was a good week for me, I only worked two days and had several days alone at home. I went to the beach with the family in the first part of the week and that was glorious, I wish I had taken pictures to share but I am not good at that part of blogging yet, we are going to try that for tomorrow, hopefully there will be lots of pics to share or at least a few. But I have enjoyed being alone with the dog this morning, she is just looking at me saying when does the fun start... in just a few minutes really.

I got a million things done this week at work. I am applying for a grant for funding and I have started writing lots of the parts, I kid you not there must be about 20 parts that all say the same thing in a different order but who cares. I really hope that I get it, that would make my life easier for the next several years. I am also learning to be more proactive, for instance I asked my boss where he wanted me to work since I know that there are going to be months of struggle before I get really good at this so I should start failing now. He was a little surprised but seemed to also be impressed. I am bound and determined to be a good investment for him.

At the house when I was home I didn't do much on the week nights but this weekend I have a million things I would like to get done about half of them are fun things for me and Lily but there is some work that has to be done.

Some of the things I would like to get done this weekend
Fun:
-Go to the farmers market
-Take Lily to the part
-Maybe go out to lunch just me and Lily
-Try to find a dog park for next weekend and a puppy friend to go with us
-Maybe try to fit in a run
-I made scones for breakfast, so good.

Life (ie. the not fun stuff)
-Clean the house so I can enjoy it all week long
-Hit up the grocery store
-Work on my paper
-Laundry
-Bathe the dog
-Clean my room, it looks like stuff threw up everywhere
-Start looking for an apartment
-I am sure there are other things I need to do but at the moment I just want to get on to the fun stuff.

I hope your weekend aren't this busy and I also hope that I at least finish most of the fun things today. I really love spending time with Lily she is a wonderful dog.

Holy holiday batman

Earlier this week I went to the beach in Alabama with my family. Every two years my moms extended family gets together for a week in the sun. I almost always enjoy these weeks in the summer. I have learned the sunscreen is very important and that you must use lots of it for it to work. I have also learned that every vacation is what you make of it.

This summer was different as I have just started a new job I didn't get to stay the whole week I got to come back early and go back to work. His was hard but it made me cherish the few moments that I got to spend with my extended family. I will admit that by day 4 I was more than ready to. One home and get to work. It isn't that I don't love my family I do but sometimes I get a little tired of making others happy. This year I tried a new approach not worrying about others and walking away when I was aggravated. This worked I am sure that people decided that I was rude but waking away is always better than a swift punch to the baby maker.

I am sure that over the next few years things will change and a new normal will be established. I happen to really love traditions so this is hard for me but putting a smile on your face whether or not you feel it makes everyone happier. I enjoy my family but sometime a small does is best otherwise I am sure I will start leaving Legos for people to step on. I mean really who brings an appliance to the beach and then pretends that they aren't pretentious. Apparently people in my family.

Learning to love your family is constant work but at least for 48 more hours I am alone with just the dog and I love it. Lily is the best and I missed her very very much while I was gone.

There are more vacay stories in store stay tuned for that excitement.

KitchenAid Mixers

In college I realized that one of the things that I wanted most in my kitchen would be a kitchenAid Mixer. This mixer would be red and it would be fantastic. As a scientist I did lots and lots of research about what kind of mixer would be right for me. After much internal deliberation I decided that the larger red mixer would be coming to my house ASAP. Now keep in mind that the mixer I chose is the one that runs about 300 dollars.

My father once told me that I was expensive and that I had expensive tastes. I remember being highly aggravated by that statement it wasn't that it wasn't true it was more like saying I have expensive tastes implies that someone else is purchasing my expensive items. That part is lie, I tend to buy my own toys and that makes them so much more valuable to me. The mixer is an expensive toy and I would not accept a different brand, it had to be red and it had to be a kitchen aid mixer.

I finally bought my toy and I love whipping up a little batch of cookies or pizza dough. I really try to make anything I can in that thing. It is so amazing.

Now that the majority of my things are in storage there are a few things that I really miss and one of them is the red mixer and here a few reasons why...
-Pizza dough is a little tough to make my hand doable but hard
-whipping up a double batch of chocolate chip cookies is super hard
-the counters look a little bare without it
-baking would just be so much easier

I think the few items that I really miss are going to be one of the things that really drives me to find an apartment so that I can have them back in my life. It is a little strange that things like my mixer and my books are things that I really miss. I miss my photos but I can look at those on the computer.

Bananas...

Everyday when I eat lunch I eat a banana, not just because it rhymes with my name but that does help. I eat one because I love fruit and I really enjoy them. To be totally honest the baller amount of potassium in each one is also a benefit. This means that I need to buy bananas often since I really only like my bananas just on the yellow side of green, maybe a little unripe. I can eat them until they get brown spots all over, then they are too stinking mushy to eat. The ones on the right are perfect and just ready to eat. 

So with that little amount of background, I tend to buy bananas over the weekend. One day when I went to the store the bananas were ready to eat and I knew that I needed bananas for the whole week and didn't want to have to come back to the store. So I buy three ready bananas and three really green bananas with the idea that I would eat the ripe bananas and then the green ones would be ready. Sounds like a brilliant PhD worth idea... and it is usually.

After eating the three ripe bananas, I moved onto the ripe bananas seen to the left... now these are as green as they look. I took it to work and sat down for lunch with one of my work friends. I ate my sandwich and moved onto one of these bananas. First, it did not peel right. The peel shredded and tore sounding kinda like paper. I looked down at this monstrosity at my table and wondered what is going on. So I get a little closer to this and it smells like a banana and it looks like one. Seeing as I cannot get into the fruit part I decide not to eat it. I set it down on the table and eat some chips and maybe a few crackers. At the end of lunch I look down and this thing was oozing liquid out from it. Now what is this fruit it what I was wondering. 

By the time I got home I was hoping for some good looking bananas that were going to be delicious. But instead I got weird bananas. A week after I bought them they were still green and rock hard. The picture below is a comparison of two bananas. I still don't know what I got, they weren't plantains because they were pretty small in comparison to what a plantain usually is. I guess there could be mini-plantains here in Texas but I don't really know what I got. I did just end up throwing these away. I didn't know what to do with these inedible bananas.

 I'll keep you updated on my odd fruit adventures. Hopefully it will not be with bananas again.

Squirrels

At the new house I have a backyard which is fantastic for the dog. She is loving the chance to chase the squirrels and since we put out corn for them to eat there is always a plethora of them for her to chase.

I love it when she chases them. She bounds out of the door and gives cute little barks and chases them up the fence in the yard. She then glares at them until the go over the fence. Sometimes the just hangout on top of the fence and terrorize her until she gives up and starts wandering in the yard. I find so much joy in all of this. I just laugh when she chases them. It is really cute.

There are a few other things I have learned about squirrels lately. When they bark at you it sounds like a broken dog and it never stops. When they are getting frisky it is typically in a pack of two boys and a girl or I assume that is the ratio but I guess it could be two girls and a boy. However it is almost always a threesome. So strange. But the biggest novelty is the size of the squirrel nuts on boy squirrels. They are huge and seem to be way out of proportion for their little tiny bodies. They have scared my eyes forever. I was so traumatized the first time I realized that wasn't just the tail it was super large nuts! On that note I think I am going to leave with that image in your head. I bet you can't wait until tomorrow. Me either

First Experiment as a Post-Doc

On my sixth day of work I was tired of sitting down at my desk so I started asking around is there something I can do for you? One of my lab mates came to my rescue and said here I need a bunch of mutations made and I don't have time to work on this so if you want you can do these. I was super pumped I like making mutations, or cloning, in fact I think I more than like it I might even love it. So I had this idea that I was going to step in and everyone would be in awe of my mad skills. So I decide that I should start with 9 mutations, that is right NINE not one or two like a normal person NINE. The problem with doing 9 first is that if there is a failure it is going to be massive not a small failure.

Now if you are reading this I bet you are cringing just a little since you probably know that this experiment is going to be a big fat fail. And you my little readers would be correct I had a massive fail in my first experiment. It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life to date, that is probably an overstatement but it is pretty stinking close to the truth. I was ready to be a bad-ass and instead I was just a regular scientist who has failures and then moves on with her life. It was stupid but I looked at it and realized that this was just the first step since I am going to try and master one of the hardest techniques during my post-doc. I am going to fail a lot and not just a lot they are going to be massive and epic. I am going to need to drink after work often and I am going to love it.

But I am trying to have a great attitude at my job because you know what I really like my job. I think this is a great job for me, I am going to be challenged and I am going to have massive hurdles to overcome but I am going to make it one step at a time. Oh well, I restarted the experiment on my 10th day of work and it worked. Turns out I did not use the right enzyme, who would have thought that the two red capped vials did not go together. Apparently I did, but I got 8 out of 9 and that is just fantastic. I am looking forward to more success over the next several months. I am such a nerd, but I really like science.

Weekend Wrap Up

Well on Saturday I wrote about the million things I wanted to get done this weekend and I am not sure if I finished them all but I did get lots of things done. Let's see how we faired last weekend:


-grocery store (which means I need a list of what I need)

-Order Toll tag-go to bank-get oil changed-get car detailed or at least all of the seats shampooed-go to my storage unit see if I can find my car title and pay bill-clean the house (kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom)-brush and bathe the dog-find a dog kennel for vacation-laundry-scoop poop-blog

It looks like I only did about half of what was on the list. That is crazy it felt like I spend the entire weekend running around getting things done. I guess that is just how life is now that I am a working gal. I know that I still have so many things to do this week I hope to be able to knock a few items out everyday after work and still have time to blog and even workout. I am in serious need of a routine but at the moment I am content to enjoy the moments that I get to spend with my grandparents even if it means that I am not going to be able to get everything finished in a timely manner. 


The list for this week looks a little something like this:


-Order Toll tag
-Bathe Lily
-Find a dog kennel or dog watcher
-pay storage unit bill and credit card
-bank
-clean house (kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom)
-Blog several different times
-workout (at least 4 different days)
-bring order to my bedroom
-return stuff to target, exchange for a different size for the maxi dress
-go to staples
-try and find a book club or some sort of fun event that is just for me


I am interested to see how this pans out for me, but I am going to make the best of it. Hopefully I will get most of this list done. Bring it on list!

Grocery Stores

There are many different trials that awaited me here in Texas that I had no idea were coming: a few of them are things like finding my car title so that I can get plates, trying to find an apartment, determining the location of my favorite items in target, and probably the most complicated is grocery shopping. I lived in St. Louis for almost 6 years, this means that no matter what store I went to I pretty much knew where to find what I needed. In addition, I knew which store was going to have the best items for the best price. In St. Louis I bought my dry goods and frozens at Target and then stopped off at Schnucks to grab produce, meat, and a few dairy products.

I have know lived in Dallas for 4 weeks, I have been to four different grocery stores for groceries. This is insane I need to just pick one and live with it. I have been to Walmart, Walmart Fresh Market, Tom Thumb, and Target Superstore. At this point I don't even know which of these stores I love the most because the reality is that while I normally love to grocery shop I hate it right now because it takes twice as long as it needs to. I have faith that I am going to get better at this but at the moment I don't know how I feel about this.

Since I am still living with my grandfather I don't want to get attached to a store and then have to find another one... omg that is going to be horrific. There are so many things I just love about going to the grocery store but I am very ready for things to settle down and me find one that I enjoy going to and that I am able to find the little odds and ends that are essential to being a good cook.

I don't know which store is going to become my favorite but I am sure it is going to happen soon since I need to be able to shop faster since I am a real working woman these days with a real commute on my way to my real job... this still doesn't seem real.

Weekend Crazies

Now that I am a working woman, I finally understand why my friends are always super busy on the weekends doing things like cleaning the house, running errands, and maybe if they are lucky getting to relax a little. These women have to keep a job, cook dinner, and look great all week long so by Saturday while what they want to do is to sit around and watch TV that is just not happening anymore. They have to clean, cook, make sure people are entertained. To do all of these things well there is little time for sitting around and watching Food Network.

This weekend I have a million things that need to get done, I will list them out in a few minutes but holy moly I have no stinking idea how I am going to get the things I have to get done done much less the things that only sorta need to get done. Oh well at least I am being productive about writing about it here... oops. At least every woman feels this way, that makes me feel somewhat better but not really I feel as if we should hire someone to do these things. Maybe I will get lucky and find a man that enjoys running errands since there won't be much time for dating on the weekends if this keeps up. But I am determined to get after it and get a much as humanly possible done this weekend so that I can relax after work this week. I am determined to catch a few hours of TV this week after work since some of my favorite summer shows are starting up. Bring it on summer.

Well I should give you my list and then get after it since it is not going to do itself.

-grocery store (which means I need a list of what I need)
-Order Toll tag
-go to bank
-get oil changed
-get car detailed or at least all of the seats shampooed
-go to my storage unit see if I can find my car title and pay bill
-clean the house (kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom)
-brush and bath the dog
-find a dog kennel for vacation
-laundry
-scoop poop
-blog

I am sure that I have forgotten a million items for the list but I will just keep plugging away. Now that I have written all of that down I am going to go and get after it, ahhh so many things to get done. I miss my weekends of nothingness from college. Oh well now I am an adult and this is what we do.