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.