A Good Thing

Right before I left for Toronto I filled up on gas...and this was the price. I almost fell over! Needless to say it was a good day, especially for a poor and mostly broke grad student. May all your gasoline dreams come true as well!

Biking Recaps

This picture is from the first ride of the year (with this group). I think it was sometime in March.






The above pictures are from our rides to the Ashville museum, in Ashville, Ohio...I've attempted to go their three or four times, with only one real success (the other times they were closed for renovation or because it was too late in the day)



These are the guys from Dean's neighborhood that we ride with most offten...in order of appearance (me, Frank, Jim and Dave). They are all in their sixties, but ride all the time so they are in really great shape.







The trip above was when I did the century ride (100 miles). Four of us went on this trip: Devon (he's 13, me, Dean and Jim)




On this trip we found a fox (alread dead) on the side of the road and Dean has been wanting to get a pelt for his grandsons so Moroni and Dean rode back (on motorcycles this time) and got the fox where we had hid it on the side of the road and then I showed them how to skin it...




The above picture are of our bike ride to the Tarlton Cross Mound (Indian mounds)


As I've been promising...here are some biking recaps over the past year (kind of)...we finally got copies of the pictures from Dean. As I really don't think I look all that great in bike shorts, I'm uploading only the ones that are flattering to me...or at least the most flattering:)

There are Still Honest People Out THere

About a week an a half ago in the parking lot at OSU, another car backed out of his spot into my car. Right away he admitted it was his fault and that he would rather pay for it than turn it in to his insurance since the damage was minimal. He also told me he was on his way to the airport and would be out of the country until the next Saturday. So I took his phone number, email and address and agreed to contact him when I had some estimates. Now, I know everyone who's reading this already have a ton of "you should haves" in their head. Yes, I know, I should have called the police, and I should have gotten his insurance information right there. But all I can say is that he seemed honest. I got the estimates on Thursday afternoon and emailed them to him Friday. He contacted me on Saturday after returning and let me know he'd been willing to pay for whichever one I wanted. To end my little story. I now have the cash sitting in my bank account because he handed me the money today and I will be able to get my pretty little Subaru fixed (some dents and scratching). So I am happy to report that it is possible to find people who are honest out there...and that you shouldn't always do what I did, but sometimes it feels good to know that you can trust that someone will keep their word, without having to be accountable to someone else, like the the police or their insurance company first.

Engagement Picture

Okay...afer everyone put up their own versions of Moroni's and my "engagement" picture, I am posting the real deal. The one taken right after he asked the question...I am also posting the one I was taking as he was getting ready to ask the question.

6 Quirks About Myself

I was tagged by my sister... left me with very little options of family to tag...grrrrr.

1. I hate a dirty kitchen sink...especially when there is water left around the edges that gets all stagnant and gross. The thought of washing dishes in it makes me want to throw up. Maybe after reading this Moroni will finally understand why I follow him around with a kitchen towel after he's done in the kitchen. To go a long with that...I dirty toilets...all though I do not wash my dishes in one, I've had too many times where I've almost thrown up and had to hold my head over a dirty, stinky, disgusting toilet.

2. I'm super anal about how my towels are folded. I think this one goes back to working at bed, bath and beyond, where I was forced to fold the entire towel area every time I worked. And in my conquest to getting it to look absolutely perfect, I was brainwashed into thinking that that was the only way it could be done.

3. I hate wearing socks over my ankles..unless it is about 3 degrees outside...all summer I go barefoot, even if I'm wearing tennis shoes.

4. I fly all the time on airplanes, but each time I do, I get a little more scared to fly, I guess because crashing seems so final...I mean for the most part you don't live through those.

5. I like to be the best at everything I do...Wendy will read this an laugh..she says I'm competetive. I just don't like to lose.

6. Because of an incident when I was about 12, I still to this day can not eat that hors de'vours that has cream cheese, shrimp and coctail sauce...any of those combined together makes me want to gag. Speaking of hors de'vours...when I was a kid I thought that was pronounced exactly as it looked (whores-di-voors) and wondered why they used that word instead of oar-dirves.

I tag Sarah (spelled with an H!), Dad, Moroni (he'll have to write it on my blog), Andrea Porter, and Lauriel

Painting the Roses Red

Here is my second video in my week of video fun:) It also reminds me of my sister. I still have my queen of hearts costume from the 4th grade and better yet I can still fit into it! Maybe I'll take a picture of myself in that as well:)

In the Bag

I love you tube. It think it's pretty much the greatest thing on the internet. The other night Moroni and I ate Chicken Catciatore(I think that's how it's spelled:)) and it made me think of the cartoon that Amy and I and Karla and Jeffrey and Stephanie would watch when we were kids. In fact we did not just watch it we also made our own props and would act it out as well and everyone wanted to be the bear or the ranger. So I got on you tube to look it up and sure enough it was there. I'm mainly posting this for my sisters benefit, but I think I will post a few more of the videos I found through out the next week or so.

Hocking River

On Monday, I had some time off from the lab (well actually, I went in really early...but since it was a hospital holiday I technically could take the day off) so Moroni and I planned out this spectacular canoeing trip! As you will see by the pictures. Unfortunately we got a little overzealous and picked the wrong section of the river! Needless to say we spent the first 6 miles of our 11 mile canoe trip lugging a canoe over tree jams, dry ground and a lot of tires! It took us 7 hours to make it 11 miles down stream where you can see the area is clean and pristine. We've definatley learned our lesson: which is to be more obervant...when we were parking our pick up vehicle down stream we say a canoe/kayak outfitter putting a group of people in where we were going to be coming out. That was our first clue. Next time we will definately follow the example of the experts! I must say thought, that even though the day got to be really long, hot and definately dirty...I think we both had a good time or at least a memorable one...we were still singing the Gilligan's Island theme song by the end if that says anything. Hope you enjoy the pictures of the beautiful scenery. They are in order of the trip!

The Visit

Hi everyone,
So this week (my first week of vacation...yes!) my Grandpa Al and Grace are here for a visit. I figured I would start posting while I actually had time to do it instead of four weeks later. They arrived last night and Moroni's dad and his wife Amy and her daughter Noelle came down for dinner. Also, my room mate Julie joined us. She's not in the pictures unfortunately because she was taking them. I was pretty excited about dinner for two reasons...I got to use herbs from my herb garden (which I had not done yet) and I actually got the briquettes on the bbq to be the right temperature and was able to cook the meat all the way through. I was also glad that the temperature dropped yesterday to a reasonable 80 degrees with low humidity so that I could keep the house cool with enough fans. It's no fun to sweat over your dinner.

My Dad: in response to Amy's blog

I decided to add a blog about my dad in response to my sisters blog.
1. I also remember my dad getting injured...however, 9 times out of 10 he was alone with me. We seemed to be a bad combination in that respect...or he thought he needed to show of his amazing skills. Either way, I knew now matter what stupid things I did I would never get in trouble because my dad had probably done it already! That's what happens when you put two people who can make compulsive decisions together! Thanks for the good times dad:
1. Broken wrists at snoqulamie
2. Broken wrists on the first day of ski trip in Canada
3. Puncturing some type of main artery on a bike ride on the Lake Youngs Trail
4. Almost driving my car over the edge of the road going up to Crystal Mountain and then locking the keys in the car
5. Multiple trips to the emergency room
6. Softball injuries
7. Boating injuries

The list could go on...but without those I would be missing a lot of significant memories in my life!

I'm Alive

For all of you who thought that I may have perhaps met my ultimate demise sometime at the beginning of last month, when I last posted a blog, the rumors are all untrue! That's just a joke...no one thinks I'm dead, but some may be wondering what I've been up to, or at least I'd like to flatter myself into thinking so anyway!

Here is a brief update of some stuff I've been up to.

1. SCHOOL...that's right school, but I took my last final for the school year last Tuesday, and am not too sad about not attending classes for the entire summer. It was a tough quarter, partially due to the fact that the weather was good, and I would have rather been outside on the weekends, and partially due to the fact that I was burned out on Biochemistry...only two more classes of Biochemistry to go! I will not be starting up with actual classes again until next year, but that's not a problem it will be a much lighter load.

2. JOINING A LAB. For those of you who don't know how this graduate program works, basically the first year of school you we are in the market for a lab to join. We have a list of 160 scientists who we then have to search through and determine whether or not we'd be interested in the research that they do. And then find three to do rotations in (that actually have the money to take a grad student on for the remainder of their graduate career). This may sound relatively simple...but I can assure you is not and was in fact probably one of the most stressful parts of this last quarter for me. The news is is that I did join a lab. I will be in a lab that focuses primarily on Liver and Pancreatic fibrosis.

3. Other activities: I will now post some pictures of some of the stuff I have been doing this past month and a half...

Moroni will probably kill me for posting this picture because we look terrible, but we've been biking some...in this particular ride we got caught in a rain storm.
Moroni bought a house and closed in the beginning of may...but was a little dismayed to find that new homes do not come equipped with blinds (poor guy). The toughest challence was the door. It is metal, number one, and we didn't really want to drill into it in order to put up blinds. Instead I created blinds out and sewed magnets inside. When you want to cover the window it can be pulled down. I was pretty proud of my domestic skills on this one, and Moroni also liked it (probably because I did not make it out of floral material...I'd say green is a pretty manly color).

Hiking and Metro parks....I'm learning Ohio style wilderness adventures everyday. It's not the Cascades or Utah...but it does have it's own gems. Around Columbus and beyond they have what are called "metro parks", which I would assume, as an outsider, to be merely another park with a swing set and slide. But this is not the case. You can actually hike in these places! And they are not just cement trails either...I mean it's a little more urban but it's still outdoors, so I'll take what I can get. The park I'm posting below is called Clear Creek Metro Park Here is great picture that Moroni actually posed for. This is Moroni and our friend Tom and an old barn we found.

The Olenatangy Indian Caverns
This Saturday we went to these caves...which were pretty cool...or at least cool in the sense that they felt really good--54 degrees, as opposed to the 94 degrees it was outside with 75% humidity. They weren't bad, just I'm glad that we had a two-for-one coupon. They did tell us, which we didn't see, that there was a lake below us and cave fish...now that would have been worth the full price. Moroni kind of reminded me of a grandpa in this pictureHere is some more fun we found at the caves. I want everyone to know I actually picked the snake up first, but Moroni was the one who tamed it. They also had a small petting zoo...very small...four animals...here is Moroni getting up close and personal with another.......................... donkey
So adios for now. I will hopefully be keeping up on the blog a little better this summer, since I will for sure have more time on my hands. And hopefully will have some good adventures to share over the next few weeks. My grandpa Al may be coming out in the middle of June for a week and then Moroni and I will be heading for Washington the last week in June.

TOSRV

The Tour of the Scioto River Valley--Scioto...for all of you not from Ohio (believe me I had to learn this also, and am still a little confused as to why it is this way) is prounounced Sigh-oh-ta (rhymes with Toyota--kind of) is a river that runs through Columbus. And the TOSRV is a 200 mile bike tour that runs from Columbus-to Portsmouth and back--and is done in two days, kind of like the STP. I did not do this ride, well, I did not pay to do this ride, but I did do my first century ride (100 miles) last Saturday. What we did was leave south-east of Columbus near Lancaster and rode for ten miles where we met up with riders from the TOSRV and followed the route for the next 40 miles. We then turned around and followed it back home. Riding "in" the TOSRV was really fun and I think I might actually do it next year. The funny, or terrible part of this ride, is that I did not train at all for it, and if I had, it probably would have been more enjoyable after mile 70. But I just didn't have the time...so instead I just did it. And the last 30 miles were pretty hard, and the last ten miles were exhausting. The nice part? When I got home I could pretty much eat whatever I wanted for the rest of the day and I didn't have to worry about gaining weight...why? Because according to the calorie calculators I looked up when I got home, I had burned 5,818 calories during the ride. I didn't take pictures, but Dean took a bunch of all of us, and when I get them, I will post them.

Mall Musical

Nisha had this posted on her blog, but not everyone knows Nisha, and so they probably wouldn't be checking out her blog. She got it from someone else, but I also think it's really funny and thought you might like to check it out.

Peeps-Around-the-World

Tonight for FHE we created people using Peeps. We got the idea from a newspaper article. I'm pretty proud of the one's I made so I decided to post them all for everyone to see.