San Francisco: The overview

A few months ago I decided to attend the 2014 Biophysical Society National Meeting in San Fransciso. I was pretty excited because the meetings tend to be in places that I never want to see or have a chance to see, but this time I invited my parents to join me for a few days prior to the conference for some sightseeing. This was probably one of the best choices I have made this year. It was wonderful to get a chance to see a whole new part of the country and to do it with my parents that is priceless.

The first day, we headed down to Carmel and Monterey Bay. We took time to drive down the Pacific Coast Highway. I will write an entire post about that this week. It was so neat to see the Pacific Ocean. I tend to think of the ocean as a peaceful place but not out here, it was so difference than the gulf coast.

After scoping out the pacific coast, we returned to the north to see what San Francisco had to offer. We observed the golden gate bridge, this was really all I saw of it until I got on the plane to go home. Gotta love the fog. We spent a day and a half roaming around San Francisco seeing some of what there was to offer. I am sure there are a million things that we didn't see but it was so neat to see different things and ride the trolly. Again, there is a full post coming about this later this week.

I loved every single second of being able to see a whole new part of the country with my parents. As I have gotten older I have much more respect for my parents and the blessing that they are to me. I am so lucky to be able to enjoy their company and want to hang out with them. I am looking forward to sharing more of what we saw and the cool things that are different on the West Coast.

I am late everywhere I go

Over the last several weeks I have become increasingly aware that I have a hard time getting to things on time. It has taken a while but I think I have a severe aversion to being early (yes, I am aware this is stupid), which means that I try to arrive just in the nick of time and I am often just a few minutes late. I was talking to my dad the other morning telling him about this revaluation and how I thought I was doing better about it... he helped me realize that I am deluding myself on this front. He reminded me that I often talk to him about how I am late or am behind schedule. At first I was insulted and then I realized he was right.

So how am I going to work on this. I have come up with a plan of attack, clearly I am a scientist.
-I am going to make a conscious effort to arrive 10-15 minutes earlier than I need to for work
-Keep a log of when I arrive early, on time, and late
-Keep to the schedule, I have been allowing myself to deviate from the plan and then I wonder what happens to my day
-Go to bed earlier: lately I have found that I have a hard time getting into the bed and then I am too tired to get up in the morning and move super slowly.
-This one is going to be a tad harder: no snooze button. I think the fact that I know that I don't have to get up therefore I sleep longer but it doesn't really do me much good so that is silly.

I am excited to see how this goes through time. I have high hopes for actually turning into a functional adult. I am looking forward to sharing how this goes for me. I hope to be able to share that in a few weeks I have gotten much better about being on time to things and managing my time better. I also hope that this allows be to be better about posting on my blog since I won't feel like I am unable to get things done.

If you are on time, how do you do it?

February Bark Box

Time for presents?

As you know it has been a few weeks since the last barkbox post, and if you remember that one, I was not impressed. I actually tossed just about everything that we got in that box so when the February Box arrived I wasn't all that excited. Lily has no realized what is happening and she is starting to love when these boxes show up.

Lily's birthday is in February so this was a birthday box so it was full of all kinds of good stuff.

What did we get:
A new wenzi: the weird kong like toy that we got last month. This one is much smaller and I have treats that kinda fit inside. It doesn't require as much work as the kong, but she likes them.
A rope toy
The Elvis Bones: She loves these, they are just banana and peanut butter dog bones
A rawhide of some variety
Some type of birthday cookies: I was going to call them brownies but I know they don't have choclate, they just look like they do.

Can I have this now???

This box is a win, so at the moment I am actually pretty impressed with BarkBox. I am finding that we now have so many types of dog treats that I am soon going to have a stock pile of treats. I am looking forward to seeing what comes in the next box. If I had to decide today, I would probably continue my subscription. Who knows, so far it has been a little hit or miss.

Snow Day, Yet again

I am so ready for winter to be over. I love the snow and I love the chance to sit in the house and watch it fall and be all snuggled up. I don't really love the aftermath, particularly here in Texas where we don't have salt trucks or plows. This means that we just have to wait until it melts. So here is another story about a snow day here in Dallas.

I woke up about normal time, and then realized that it was snowing. Not too much but enough to be pretty. I decided that I would go ahead and get ready and just leave later than usual, I figured that the roads would be fine. I took a longer walk with the dog and enjoyed watching her play around. 

Best morning ever

On the walk, I was pretty excited that I had lived in St. Louis for several years because I actually have gear for this kind of weather. I have some snow boots, I don't know that they would be awesome in lots of snow but they keep my feet warm while I walk the dog. My mom knitted me a hat that is cute and warm (hard to find, right). Thanks mom!!

Burr... so cold

So now I am ready for work. I decided to get it together and I head out the door. I opt to wear my snow boots, I didn't want to get caught like the people in Atlanta and not be able to walk somewhere. I get out of the apartment OK, in this storm it was just snow no ice. However, it was packing pretty good so I figured that I would just drive in to work slowly. As I exit my neighborhood I realize that the roads are backed up all the way from the highway (over a mile of going no where). I opt to jump down to the next major intersection and see how it is there.

It was the same, at this point I have been on the road for about 30 minutes. I come over a hill, which was slightly insane to drive on and as I look at the highway, no one is really moving. I got to the light and promptly turned around and went home.

After 45 minutes on the road, I returned to the house and realized that I should have just stayed home and worked from here. The roads weren't terrible, they just needed to be plowed and treated.

I am so ready for the snow to be over. I am sure in a few months I will be ready for it again, when it is 100 here for days on end but for now I am just ready to be able to be outside and not feel like I am freezing. Apparently, after 18 months here in Texas I am again a southerner that cannot handle the cold. Ha.

February New Recipes

In February I was not nearly as prolific about my trying of new recipes as I was in January, I would guess that is due to the whole spending about a third of the month in San Francisco. I will be telling you about that eventually, it was an amazing trip. I loved every single second of it. Anyway back to the recipes.

Making Colored Sugar:

On Pinterest, it says you can just add food coloring to sugar (the stuff in the pantry) and it will change colors and look super cool. It was my job to bring cupcakes to a Superbowl party and I realized that I didn't have any orange sugar for the Broncos cupcakes. Don't go crazy, I did some for the seahawks and some for the broncos. I didn't really have a dog in that fight. 

Got my supplies ready

So I followed the directions: Sugar in a bowl, add some food coloring, stir, let it sit for 30 minutes to dry again (this is key, otherwise it will dye your fingers). I will admit that it worked better than I expected.

Here was the downside, the sugar is super fine so it just looked like orange dust. It was orange so this is a nice way to get colored sugar but if you want something that looks like sprinkles I think you need to buy the nicer sugar (like the granules that are on the table in the brown package near the splenda). I was pleased with the result just a bit underwhelmed but it was nice to know that it worked. Make sure that you let it dry so that it doesn't stain your fingers and your mouth.

Drew Barrymore's Meatballs:
I found this on people.com. I have been obsessed with finding a good meatball recipe lately, I figured why not give this a try, at least it wasn't a healthy option. The recipe is here should you decide that you want to try it. I was pleased with this. I didn't love the sauce but this was leftover sauce from once when I tried to make Giada's marinara sauce, which I didn't really love since there were chances of veggies in there. I am sure that I just missed something in that one but eh who cares right.

The meatballs were super easy to make and I thought they tasted great, I fully intend to make these again soon. Or at least hold on to this recipe for later when I am dying to have meatballs again.

It was a pretty successful month for me in the kitchen. Sometimes it is hard to try different recipes since if anything is made in a large portion I eat it for most of the week. I am enjoying this trying of recipes, hopefully I will have as much luck in March. Don't worry that post won't come for a few days! Gotta love being behind in the posting. Let me know if you have any recipes that I should try out.

January New Recipes

As you know one of my new years resolutions is to try 50 new recipes this year. So I am shooting for about 4-5 a month and to be honest I don't really care how hard or easy they are. I would like to have a larger base of recipes to make for when people come for dinner. This month I made four things and only one was a total bust (and it was terrible)

Ina Garden's Apple Tart

I got this out of one of her cook books and cut it down to only 1/4 of the recipe because that is just too much desert for me to eat in a week. I am trying to loose a little weight here. It was so yummy, that is probably due to all of the butter in the recipe but who knows. This will definitely be coming back around. 

The Smitten Kitchen Latka's:

I got the Smitten Kitchen cookbook for Christmas and I always love when I try the very first recipe in any cookbook. I think I have had Latka's once before but I didn't love these. I used a Mandoline to grate the potato so it might have been slightly large for the purpose of this meal. They were pretty good if just a little soft and not as crispy as I had expected. 

Ina Garden's Brownie Pudding:
Now this is amazing and when I finish altering the recipe I will definitely be sharing this with you. I loved it. I think I over cooked it slightly because it should be slightly underdone... just the way I like my brownies. But it was incredible. So good. I did cut this down pretty heavily so that I don't get real fat.

Ina Garden's Sole Merine:
This was super nasty. I don't know what I did wrong but it tasted like I was eating a lemon rind. Yuk. Now in hind sight I don't think I really like lemon flavored things. I don't mind a hint of lemon but this was bathed in lemon. I had a hard time finishing this but but it could have been worse. I did like how the fish was cooked in butter in a skillet so I will be keep that as part of the fun cooking ideas. But not so much about the lemon.

All in all this was pretty successful. I really love cooking I think if I didn't love science so much I would be a cook of some variety. So fun. I am excited to see what all I make this year.

2014 Resolutions

I know that this is March and that if I was going to write resolutions for the year I should have done that 2 months ago when the year started. Turns out that things have been a tad crazy in my life and the blog is just falling behind. It happens, sometimes I fret about what to write or I think too hard about it and nothing ever happens. I am actually trying to get better about that.

Honestly, my resolutions for the year are relatively simple:

1- Try 50 new recipes throughout the year. I think in this case they can be big or small recipes but I was to try 50 new items.

2- Run 200 miles. This I think is going to be a stretch if I don't really get after it but as I am trying to loose some weigh since last year I think I lost all of three pounds. Yes that is something but not really enough. I have found that I really enjoy running so I would like to run more frequently so I am going to shoot for the moon. Also, I like specific number goals so that I can know when I have gotten there.

3- Quit stressing about the blog. I kid you not I write posts in my head all the time but I find that when I finally have a few minutes this is the last thing I want to work on. On the other hand, I really like this I am going to work on finding a new balance.

4- Apply for faculty jobs (and hopefully get one). This is a whole new thing for me and really deserves its own post when it becomes time for that, but the important thing is that I am ready to be the boss of my own lab. I am starting to have my own ideas of how things should be done and I want to lead a group of students. I am actually really excited about this. Stay tuned for more info!

Truthfully, that is it for the year. I want to spend time enjoying Dallas but I don't really know how to quantify that so I am going to let it go. Oh well, I will be sure to let you know as I figure it out. Do you have big goals for the year?

A grown up conundrum

This morning I was on the phone with my dad trying to figure out if I should go to work or not. A little back story on this, yesterday it sleeted most of the day and in some places it was still small pellets that you could get a grip on when walking on and other places it was a sheet of ice. Now in the street that I park on it was almost all ice. I had been watching the local news and the weather channel all morning long. From what I could tell the roads were either fine or all ice. 

As I was talking to my dad I was just trying to determine if I thought it would be safe on the road or if I should stay home. I processed through what I had to do at work: work on a paper. Wait I can do that at home. Eventually my dad asked what is it you want me to do. And I said I just want you to help me decide, and he laughed and said make your own choice. So as I decided to stay home since I didn't want to total my car or die for my job, I had a thought. 

Why is it that we (as women) believe that the right choice is to drive to work on bad weather as opposed to being safe and staying off the road? 

My dad asked if he should answer that and I said it was just a thought. But it struck me that I felt like I was letting people down if I stayed home. It would be one thing if I was just being lazy but when I made the choice it was all ice behind my car. Now about an hour later when maintenance showed up the roads looked much less icy as is mostly wet. But sometimes the goal is to make a choice and then just live with it. I manged to get lots of stuff done and snuggle with Lily all day. In the end I don't know that one choice was better than the other but I was glad that I made one. I will be sure to let you know if I have more crazy grown up choices or insights.