How much do I love my job?

I'm working on writing up my protocols at the lab I've been working at the past year and a half since I am about to move on. One of the nifty machines I LOVE using is the Spectrophotometer. It has many different uses, but I use it for measuring how much DNA i have extracted out of a plant sample. While looking for product literature to write up my protocol today, I came across this video that the manufacturers made. It is SUPER nerdy and hilariously fun. Note: this will only be funny to Ashley and Desiree, or anyone else who has lab experience who reads my blog... The rest of you will probably want to skip it ;)

Scrabulous

Just a cute little screenshot of me kicking Josh's behind in Scrabble. Meanwhile, I typed a six page paper on couples who "swing" - and I don't mean on the playground - and made a gigantic pot of minestrone soup. Yum! Why is it still soup weather and it's almost June?

Success!

Bagels for the win.

Sorry for the super crappy camera phone pictures.... I have no batteries for my digital and this was too cool not to blog. On Monday i tried making bagels and failed pretty badly. They were totally flat. Even though they had crispy outsides and bubbly, spongy insides, it still did not seem bagelish at all. Tonight I motivated myself to try again. Yeast, flour, sugar and salt for 25 bagels are cheaper than six bagels at the store. So here is my second attempt and they are looking awesome so far. They are still in the oven but smell delish. I combined a few recipes to get a feel for how I should do it this time - thinking that I killed the yeast and also didn't boil long enough on try one. I'll let you know how it goes.

Mother's Day and Martinis

On Sunday mom, grandma, Uncle Doug, Uncle Daryl, Janet, Phil and I went out to dinner at Clarke's in Lake Oswego. It was stellar - all of us ordered the same two things except for Daryl. Lobster risotto or New York Strip Steak. All of our food was incredible and when the desert menu came, I jumped at the opportunity to try one of their espresso martinis. I went out last night and got ingredients to try concocting this at home it was SOOOO incredibly yummy. Now I have added an extra ingredient and perfected my own recipe.

Espresso (coffee) Martini

• 2 oz Super dark brewed coffee, cold (or espresso)
• 1 oz Vanilla Vodka
• 3/4 oz of Kahlua
• 1/2 oz of Peppermint Schnapps

Fill a 16oz drink shaker with ice cubes, add all the above ingredients and shake well. Strain into a martini glass - you'll get a beautiful creme on top from the shaking. It looks just like a freshly pulled shot of espresso.

Iraq Body Counts Exhibit

When I started college, this display went up in the spring time and one of the sections of the quad was filled with flags. The next year, the parimeter was lined with flags. This year, our ENTIRE quad is full of death. It is a sobering reminder that war is happening every single day. I think installments like this are very important for people to be exposed to, so they are forced to be reminded. (Link to OSU's exhibit on Wikipedia)