Monday: Twilight

I borrowed the Twilight series from Ashley on Saturday. I'm glad she made me take all four books because I'm currently half way through the second. They are so hard to put down. They read rather quickly though too.

I can completely understand why teenage girls (and even women) have gone nuts over the series. Edward seems like such a great guy. I don't quite understand Bella's obsession with becoming a vampire though. I guess I understand that she doesn't ever what to leave him or grow old, but the thought of being pretty much immortal would be enough to make me choose to not become a vampire. The thought of having to wake up and get out of bed every day without ceasing is not a pleasant thought.

In other news, Ben and I both have sore backs from racquetball. I made applesauce tonight and my apple corer-peeler-cutter made the whole process go much, much faster.

Sunday: r-ball

Ben and I went to play racquetball today. It was one of our staples while we were dating during college, but we only played a few times in Illinois (mainly because the courts were under construction for two of the years) and we haven't played here yet. As part of our twice-a-week workout, we finally found some courts and went.

It was so much fun. It took us a while to figure out what we were doing again, but by the end we were getting some good off-the-wall hits. Ben sustained some minor injuries (from himself) and we both think we'll be sore in the morning. We are debating about spending the money to get a gym membership and trying to go on a weekly basis.

Saturday: roofs and ladders

Well, today was supposed to be a very busy day: roofing in the morning, apple picking in the afternoon, and games at night.

Unfortunately, we didn't end up roofing. The people that we were going to help decided that it was too high and too steep for their comfort. While I'm glad they put our safety first, I'm also sad that we weren't able to help them. I climbed up the ladder for a picture. It was pretty bouncy. I was ok climbing it when I had both hands, but if I had to carry something up there at the same time it would have been rather scary.

So we went apple picking in the morning instead. We picked a lot of apples because I want to make applesauce again. Last years batch lasted until about last month...almost perfect. We also got some donuts (yum) and our yearly squash.

We went a year ago when Hugh was a tiny baby and so he got a tiny apple. He is a year older now and much more active!

Friday: stars and coffee

I made peanut butter cookies today. I make the one below especially for Ben. Can you guess what it's supposed to be? (Hint...it is kind of like star gazing when you wonder how four stars can make a crab.)

And for all you guests out there that brave coming to our house even though we don't have a coffee maker, do we have a surprise for you!

To make the deal even sweeter, we even got coffee filters. To make the deal a bit more bitter though, I'll be getting some coffee on Sunday.

My problem and my not problem

My problem is that my computer keyboard stopped working today. Hmm. And somehow we don't have a spare that works. However, it's amazing how much you can do with just a mouse.

My not problem is that I'm done with work for the week. Yay! Today was rather slow, so that makes it even better. On top of all that, my Dad is coming next weekend so my next two weeks are also short! Woot-woot!

Flurry seems to be having a great time with all the fabric scattered on the floor. I think she's just getting it ready for her cousin

Wednesday: transporters

So Ben and I were talking the other day about how the Nobel prize winner in physics is the first person to receive both a Nobel prize and an ig-Nobel prize. That is rather amazing.

But what would be even more amazing would be to win both for the same work. I decided that teleportation is the thing that is going to do this. So wrote the outline of that paper (first draft):

Title: Bringing your food to you: a look at a way to eat without leaving the lab

I. Introduction

A. The problem with having to eat

i. Lack of productivity

ii. Long lines

iii. Schedule issues

B. How people currently solve this issue

i. bring food from home (cold)

ii. beg a friend to bring some

iii. order in (expensive)

C. A new way to eat

i. Teleportation from where the food is sent directly to the lab

II. Methods

A. Set-up

i. Teleporter in a kitchen (shows a grad student wearing a chef's hat)

ii. Teleporter in the lab (show a box with a sign "food allowed in this area")

B. Procedure

i. Chef would cook a taste and delicious meal that isn't so delicious after a few minutes

(eggs in the shape of a smiley face)

ii. Chef puts on Teleporter and hits "send"

iii. Grad student eats food while smiling and working.

iv. Grad student sends back food containers

C. The technical stuff

III. Results

A. Happy grad students!

i. Compare hungry grad student performance to non-hungry grad student performance

ii. Clean labs

B. Compare amount of work completed

IV. Discussion

Hmmm...figure out something to go here.

IV. Conclusions

A. Feed your grad students

B. Teleportation is cool

This person will win the Nobel for discovering how to teleport large items and the ig-Nobel for figuring out how to use massive amounts of energy to move smiley faces across the hall.

Tuesday: a semi-random video

I know that I usually don't post YouTube videos up here (besides those of Flurry), but a friend made this one and I think it's hilarious. So I thought I'd share it. :)