Author: iampotassium

Painting with the moon

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Last night, Cobalt and I went out in search of auroras. We didn’t think CO would be cool enough to get auroras being pretty far south but we thought we would give it a try anyway. It turned out that even if there were auroras, the moon was soooooo bright that we probably wouldn’t have been able to see any anyway. Booo moon. But all hope was not lost! We hung out by moonlight and had ourselves a creepy (romantic?) hike above the town of Boulder. From that hike, I bring you our fun photography brainwave – moon painting! That’s right. This is the easiest kind of photography ever – You set your camera on a long exposure setting, point it at the moon and then run around! So what do you guys think? Awesome abstract art? Looks like a 3 year old did it? Reminds you of Ghostbusters? Let’s hear your comments! I kind of want to try it again and try to actually make shapes with the moon – like use your camera as a giant pencil? Hrmmm….

Below I used both the moon and Boulder for painting…

I hope you guys all have awesome weekends!

Cobalt’s Questions about Readings

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Today’s post is written by Cobalt, obviously. Potassium still took the picture… and no we are not having a shark officiating our wedding… that would be… odd…

Hey folks,

Potassium is exhausted from work so she asked me to fill in for this Wedding Wednesday. I haven’t done blog writing in awhile so I’ll try not to suck. So we’ve been trying to figure out what to do with our ceremony and such, and I’ve been thinking about it as the “show” part of our little shindig. Vows are one thing, but what do we do with things such as readings? Potassium and I have our way that we like to do things and we are trying to find a way to makes the ceremony be us, but still solemn and nice. We don’t want it to be boring. I’ve been debating a little about readings. Are they worth doing? 1st Corinthians is nice and everything, but is it too cliché? Should we even care? If we didn’t have a reading would it be weird? What are some other ideas we should take a look at? I know this is a lot of questions, but we would like some ideas.

So whattaya think?

Cheez-its in my lab drawer!

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So since I have had at least one lab drawer to call my own, it has contained food in it. I tend to get a bit hangry (hungry/angry…) if I go too long without food and I also love eating so I have provided myself with tasty snacks for years now. Last year, my food drawer became very popular with my lab mates and people actually started bringing in food to repopulate all the food I (and they) ate! It was delicious. The food drawer tends to become a little candy heavy so last time we went out on a late night lab drawer food run (they totally happen… and they are totally cool… we went to Target at 9:30 on Saturday night… and it was awesome… moving on…), I grabbed a box of Cheez-its to go with our delicious candy choices. The Cheez-its were the best idea ever. They didn’t even last the week. I had to run to the store by our house and get more… and here they are… ready to make me happy whenever I go searching through my lab drawer for a snack (which is often)… We are moving our lab next month and I haven’t been able to check out the new desk areas for a suitable replacement lab food drawer… I hope it will work out…

What about you? Do you get hangry? Do you have a drawer of food by your desk at work? How about at home? For fellow CU readers, are you going to come by my desk to get a snack? Should I stock up? ;)

Chicken Plus Cactus = Love?

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Today’s post is about nicknames. They’re fun and endearing generally. The nickname Potassium is actually one I gave myself back in high school (Really… at any given time since I was 17, I have had at least one website or blog, etc with “Potassium” in the name) but Cobalt has taken to calling me Chicken. I like it. For some reason I find it really endearing when he goes “What’s up Chicken?” or “You’re my favorite chicken…” because it’s so weird and also cute. It’s been really hard for me to come up with a cute but similarly endearing nickname for him. He mostly just makes weird faces and vetoes my suggestions… The other day, I told him his face was prickly like a prickly pear cactus and then said “Cactus….” and he didn’t seem too upset. So maybe? Cactus and Chicken?

What about you? Do people have fun, yet endearing, nicknames for you? Do you have fun, yet endearing, nicknames for others? Is there a nickname that you absolutely can’t stand when people use? :-/

About the pic: We actually do have cacti that grow here in Colorado but generally they are all wrinkled and depressing looking. This little guy is looking pretty good though. Maybe he’s protected by the pinecones in the grass surrounding him…

In sickness and in health

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Short post today because Cobalt and I both have tragic death colds of death (finally getting better but still…). Boooo… Anyway, in case you didn’t guess already, today’s Wedding Wednesday post is about vows. So really, the post looks like this: What do you think? Writing your own vows or using traditional ones?
I am kind of of the mind set that Cobalt and I are anything but traditional and since nothing else about our wedding (what we’ve planned so far) is going to be very traditional, maybe writing our own vows would be more of our style. I like the freedom that it gives you – being able to say things and make promises about things that actually matter in your relationship and being able to add in little inside jokes that gives your relationship a sense of mystery and wonder that I think is my favorite part of any wedding. On the other hand, I am kind of nervous about writing my own vows. I am such a perfectionist, how can I make sure what I say to Cobalt expresses exactly how I feel?!
What do you guys think? What have you done? Is it worth it to write your own?

Picture: another engagement picture by Holly Carlyle.

Boy Scouts and Tire swings: Part 2

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Today’s post is about my soon to be niece A. She’s a crazy one so my pictures hopefully can capture that.

Cobalt and I got in Thursday night so we could get up early on Friday and see A sing in her school’s choir concert at… 8:45 am! Anyway, it was very enjoyable and we got to see A dance!
After school, she and I went to the park. Shown here is A on the tire swing. Somehow the tire swing turned into a spa (don’t ask, I am not sure how we got there now…) so here in this picture she is sporting my sunglasses and showing off her “new” fingernail polish… Hahaha…

What else happened?! Cobalt had to dig her bike out of the ice so she and C could go bike around the neighborhood (it was awesomely warm this weekend… though not warm enough to melt the ice around A’s bike without some coaxing from Cobalt). We also got to do some drawing. A and I switched off – we each drew a picture and then the other one colored it. I don’t have pictures of our finished drawings for you so I will just post a picture of the new animal I invented: the horse shark – which is a combination of our favorite animals. :)

So now a note for A – A you are super smart and really sweet. I love running around and being silly with you. I am so excited to be part of your family. :)

Boy Scouts and Tire swings: Part 1

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This weekend, Cobalt and I got to spend a lot time with his/my soon to be niece and nephew so in honor of that, today and tomorrow will be dedicated to them! We’ll start with C because he is the oldest (had to pick some order so sorry A, you have to wait to tomorrow…)

Anyway, this weekend C and I got to spend some time tossing around a football and playing Skylanders (it looks pretty cool! I kind of want it…). Then we got to see him cross over from cub scouts to boy scouts! Yay C! So proud of you! :) This top picture is a pic of him still as a cub scout.
Then we came home and drew pictures. Here is a picture of the pac shark he drew for me (sorry… it’s a funky cell phone pic):

Finally, a little note for C – C, you are an awesome kid. You are super creative and an amazing artist. I love playing video games and drawing with you. I am so excited to be part of your family. :)

Colorado has beautiful sunsets

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Yesterday, Cobalt and I witnessed the most beautiful sunset! Unfortunately I was driving at the time but fortunately I had my DSLR in the car and Cobalt was ready to take pictures! It was kind of a fun experience with me driving and being like “Oooooo! Take a picture of this! Oooooo…” while Cobalt manipulated the camera and got the pictures. I like being a photography team with you, Cobalt! About a half an hour later, I got even more ideas for fun pictures but alas… still driving. Funny how driving brings out my creative side… In this top picture we see a monster hidden in the clouds… Do you see it?!

Below is another one of our pictures – this one is purely Cobalt-inspired and his favorite of our series…

Do you ever get super creative while you are driving? Are you excited that it’s Friday? Are you going to watch the Oscars on Sunday?

Wind: the cloud artist

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So one of my really good friends is visiting Boulder for a conference and Boulder is just not playing nice for her! We had 60-70 mile an hour winds allllll day yesterday! Seriously… I almost got blown away walking to the bus stop yesterday (and Cobalt had a very hard time biking to work – at one point, he was neither going forward nor backward thanks to the craziness of the wind). Anyway, one of my favorite things about really windy days here (actually pretty much my only favorite thing about windy days) is that the wind does funny things to the clouds. Usually it makes them crash into the backs of the mountains so they come splaying over the mountains in this really pretty way. Yesterday though, it was doing something completely different… look at that weird cloud shape toward the bottom. It’s so streamlined and unfluffy-cloud-like. It is so mysterious to me. I was kind of in awe as I was walking from the bus stop so I stopped at took this picture on my cell phone. I think the colors in this picture are very strange…

What is your least favorite kind of weather and is there anything about it that makes it tolerable (like me and the way the wind shapes the clouds)?

The cow’s upside down again…

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Cobalt and I are having our second premarital counseling session this coming weekend. At the end of the first one, we had to take a test about ourselves and our relationship (how we deal with money, planning for the future, etc). Now this time we are going to discuss the areas that the test said where we are compatible and incompatible and then come up with plans on how to handle things when the incompatible areas pop up. I am kind of intrigued, excited, and nervous about this upcoming session. Where are our weakest points? Where are our strongest points? How will we learn to bring up sensitive topics? I hope this is helpful for making our relationship even stronger. :D

So… the picture… well in our first session, our counselor mentioned a couple he knew that had a stuffed cow prominently displayed in the house. Whenever one of them was upset and needed to talk to the other, they would turn the cow over – on its side if things were bad but not terrible and on its back if things needed to be discussed immediately. In this way, the second person could see the cow and know that their spouse is upset. This spares the first person the awkwardness of having to admit that he/she is upset and allows the second person to jump right in and ask the question “What’s wrong?” It’s kind of an awesome system if you ask me. Think about when you are upset and how hard it is for you to admit that something is wrong and how much you are just hoping your spouse/partner/boyfriend/girlfriend/whatever will just pick up on it and ask you about it. No longer! Just turn over the cow. Think about when you feel weird but you don’t know why or what it means or how to bring it up… turn over the cow. Problem solved. Now your spouse/partner/boyfriend/girlfriend/whatever can just ask you. They understand how you feel (based on the cow’s position) and now they can start the conversation.
I think it is neat. Cobalt and I were inspired and actually have this cow in our house though to date we have not actually used it… But we could…

What about you guys? Do you have creative ways to solve conflicts or attack iffy topics? How do you make sure that everyone is happy and feels like their voices are heard?