Author: iampotassium

Everything is tired!

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Cobalt and his Andy Warhol Campbells Soup can puzzle from the Andy Warhol exhibit

Hey everyone! How are you? Sorry it’s been forever since I posted on here. Hopefully the following will help explain some of my absence. Two weekends ago, Cobalt and I went to Fort Collins, CO for a date day. It was a lot of fun! First we went to my favorite French restaurant for brunch. Mmmmm crêpes and macarons… Then we headed to the Fort Collins Museum of Art to see the Warhol Exhibit. Cobalt loves Andy Warhol’s art and it was cool to have him teach me all about screen printing! Later, I found a recipe book for making a variety of macarons. Mmmmm so excited to try those out! When we got back into town, we decided to do some bouldering at the climbing gym. That’s when the day took a tragic turn because on the last climb, I fell off the wall and ended up spraining not one, but both my ankles!

Ankles getting iced the night of the fall…

All last week was spent figuring out how to use crutches and getting over some serious pain (and a cold). The pain is a little better now but my ankles are still pretty swollen. Yesterday was my first day back in lab and it was epic. Just getting to the bus stop made me exhausted… Then we had a fire alarm in the middle of the day (my lab is on the 3rd floor…)! We’re supposed to have snow this afternoon so that should be interesting. Hopefully the swelling goes down soon so that my life can get back to normal… :(

Now it’s your turn. Tell me about a time you were injured. Did you ever sprain an ankle?! How did you deal with the pain? It’s funny, ever since I fell and hurt my ankles, all I have wanted to do was go for a run. Booo…

PS: In case you couldn’t tell, my post title is a play on the “Everything is Awesome!” song from the Lego Movie except it describes how I felt when Cobalt picked me up from lab yesterday…

Horses, plant homes, and more!

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This poor plant still isn’t doing so well but I really like this one flower…

Hey everyone! Looks like I’m sticking to this once a week on Wednesdays post schedule for a little bit. Life is crazy with trying to graduate and all…

A lot of stuff has been happening though so I’ll give you a mini update!

So first of all, two weeks ago, Cobalt and I made a plant home in our office! Look at those happy plantys!

Plants enjoying the last of a sunny day. Also pictured: a buffalo and Jörg the German sheep

Second of all, it’s been snowing a lot…. Not a fan. But at least this picture is pretty.

I’ll admit it. When the snowflakes look like this, I am still a little mesmerized by them. Even when I am grumpy about having to clean off my car to go to work…

Finally, last weekend, we made dumplings with some of our friends for the Chinese New Year! :D This year I got to learn how to make the wrappers too. It was fun rolling them out into perfect circles. I also love folding the dumplings into these cool shapes. This year we put almonds into a few for good luck. Because four of us making/eating the dumplings are hoping to graduate from grad school this year, we decided that eating a dumpling with an almond in it meant that we would definitely graduate this year. We all got almond-filled dumplings so hopefully we will all graduate! :D

Happy year of the horse!

Anyway, in science news, yesterday I finished the last of my repeats for the first part of my project! So minus a few tweaks or running the assays I designed for other people’s experiments, that means I am done with the first part. Now I finally get to focus on the more nebulous and less thought out second part of my project! Things are coming along (even though they are slow)!

Your turn. Tell me about life. It’s February! Is the weather looking any better there because it’s cold and snowy here… Did you watch the Superbowl last weekend? Got any Valentine’s Day plans for next week? Let’s discuss! :D

Exercising with the president

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Cobalt’s mii leading a band where Potassium plays the tuba and President Obama plays the drums!

I’ve been planning this post for a while now but it seems fitting to post it now after the State of the Union last night! So when Cobalt and I got our wii a few years ago, we stayed up really late that night making a ton of miis. First we made Potassium and a Cobalt miis, then evil Potassium and Cobalt miis, and then Cobalt made a baristo mii and I made a scientist mii. Then we got really creative and decided to throw in a few presidents + film directors too. It was really fun at the time but I had no idea how much more fun it would be when the miis showed up in our various games – specifically our Wii Fit games. It’s hilarious to be running and have President Obama run past you… Also he looks so happy as he runs past you, you can’t help but enjoy your workout a little more! Well if the president is having fun, maybe this workout can’t be so bad…

Hehehe… Seriously though, I’ve been working on staying in shape more this winter. Generally, I am a summer sports girl – I love swimming and soccer and running on trails in the sun. Sure I go cross country skiing a few times in the winter but for the most part I just sit in my house feeling sad and cold. So this year, I joined a bouldering gym (that’s climbing but without the top ropes). It cost money so I have to go to make it worth it. I was worried I would be dragging my feet about going but it’s turned out to be so easy! It’s so fun to go climbing whenever I want to (instead of maaaaaaybe once a week) and it’s great to leave early if I am tired (because I can always go back tomorrow!). Plus I get really competitive with myself about various climbing problems that are hard for me (Come on Potassium, let’s go climbing and lick that purple one!) In addition to the climbing, I’ve been trying to bike to work (on non icy/snowy days of course). I got some pretty sweet winter biking gloves from my parents this Christmas so it’s been a much more comfortable ride.

It’s only January and we’ve started to get a lot more snow/cold weather but for right now, I think it’s working – I’m still cold but I am feeling much happier! I feel much more like myself and less of a tired, sad version of Potassium, which is awesome because I have been working some loooooooong hours in the lab.

Tell me: what do you do for exercise? Do you have winter sports in addition to summer sports? Also tell me about your weather right now! We went from 50 degrees and sunny on Sunday to 28 degrees and snowing on Monday and then when I woke up on Tuesday morning it was -4. Yikes! Luckily it’s supposed to be back up in the 50s tomorrow…

Celestial Seasonings and What Followed

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Hello everyone! I hope you had a great MLK weekend! I had a lot of fun with my SIL, her kiddos, and Cobalt. We went to IKEA (I’ve got a plant project… more on that later… like when I actually do the project), Cobalt’s favorite record store, our favorite bookstores, the park (it was so warm this weekend!), the movies and to Celestial Seasonings for a tour of their plant. That is where the above picture comes in: we all had to wear hairnets to go on the tour but Cobalt and the other bearded guys also had to wear beard nets… hahahaha. It was funny. We giggled at him a lot. Regardless, the tour is really cool! You should definitely check it out if you’re ever near Boulder (also, you need to visit me… duh)! After the tour, my niece and I got matching shark and whale finger puppets. :D I named mine Rosabaya and Arpeggio after two of my favorite Nespresso flavors (I know…. super nerdy all of a sudden)!

The shark and whale finger puppets hang out…

Anyway, that’s all for now. Things are busy as usual. At least my niece and nephew got to help me set up for Monday’s experiments Sunday night. We all had gloves on and I taught them how to set up everything. It was kind of amazing. Made Monday’s experiments way happier knowing that we set it all up together…

In other news, I’ve been working on making our lab webpage super awesome so when I finally get time to work on this blog, I am kind of tired of typing… So I apologize for posting lags…

What are you guys up to right now? How are those new years resolutions coming?

Frolicking with Family

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C and A are always so good at posing for my SIL and me when we want to play with our cameras together!

This weekend, my sister in law and her kiddos are coming to visit us here in Colorado! So excited to spend time frolicking around and seeing some things Cobalt and I haven’t even seen yet – like Celestial Seasonings! Can’t wait to catch up with my niece and nephew and my SIL! Haven’t seen them since Christmas! :D

Now before I run off to go clean up our house for our guests, I’ll post some pictures of my niece and nephew because they are growing up so fast! I am so proud of them. :)

A in Oklahoma during Thanksgiving

This might be one of my favorite pictures I’ve taken of C. :)

What are you up to for the long weekend? Exciting plans? :)

This post is about pondering

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I miss being able to ponder at the beach… I took this picture when my sis, Cobalt, and I headed to the beach on New Years Eve. It was a spectacular idea… :)

This month, I signed up to get e-mails from The January Cure, which is a challenge to get your house in order one day at a time. It was a lot of fun for the first few days until I headed back to lab after the holidays and then I had a sudden realization: I end up doing all the January cure assignments the weekend after they’re scheduled because I am never home. At first I thought that it’s just due to the fact that I’m in grad school and I have meetings at weird times and science that doesn’t understand what weekends are but I think that even when I am physically present in my home, I am not mentally present. I’m caught up in a mess of what do I need to do for tomorrow, what I should be doing right now, what I am going to eat for lunch tomorrow, what I am going to eat for dinner right now, how should I get to lab tomorrow (bus, bike, or driving?), how much do I hate grad school right this very instant, how many people are making me feel bad about myself, am I being grumpy to Cobalt, should I be getting ready for bed, is it going to snow, etc etc etc. I realized as I was cleaning the counters in the kitchen (this weekend’s activity) how much I am caught up in my head that I forget just to be alive and live. I have all these cool projects that I want to do and all these cool books that I want to read and all these delicious recipes that I want to use but I seem to be giving myself no time to do anything except be miserable. So then I took some time and curled up in my favorite bean bag chair in our office and read National Geographic. It was nice.

I’m learning that it’s important to think about the “intentions” we have behind our actions. For example, going for a bike ride with Cobalt is a lot more pleasant when the intention behind it is to be outside in the sun enjoying each other’s company even though it’s cold instead of OMG WE’RE FAT AND LAZY… MUST GO OUTSIDE. I think it’s going to be really useful to remind myself about intentions as I work on trying to finish my PhD this year. I have gotten really grumpy about science and my career in my “old” (grad school) age and I think it’s really crucial that I don’t let it ruin me.

In addition to pondering, cleaning my house and fighting tirelessly with science, I’ve been up to a lot of stuff lately! I went cross country skiing with some friends a few weeks ago, I made liquid nitrogen ice cream in lab last week, and Cobalt and I caught up with a bunch of friends this past weekend (including: friends from Albuquerque who were in town, friends who like eating hot pot with me and Cobalt, and married friends who like staying up late and laughing – seriously, we didn’t get home till 1 AM Monday morning…. :-/). What have you been up to? What are your New Years Resolutions? Tell me all the things!

The world is just a little less puffier today

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Potassium and her wee holding Patti and Smokey the day the kittens joined the family.

A long time ago (read: before braces and growing up and all that jazz), Potassium and her family adopted two tiny kittens to befriend their older cat Blackberry. They named the kittens Patti and Smokey. Patti, the runt of the litter, was so tiny that the vet refused to draw her blood for the customary FeLV test at her new cat exam. “She needs all the blood she can get!” the vet commented, adding that Smokey’s test results would be fine for both of them.

In addition to being so tiny, Patti had epically long fluffy fur, she had the tiniest squeak of a meow, and she didn’t even know how to purr (Potassium and her friend G had to teach her). Potassium and her family fell in love with her instantly. Then Patti grew up into an even fluffier little puffball who loved being petted (so much so that she would bite your butt if you were “ignoring her” by petting one of the other cats), thought that cars were her friends (that was scary – she would flop down right in front of people pulling into the driveway so she could get her belly rubbed), and was our adorable little Snowbeast with her little pantaloon pants.

In case you didn’t believe me about her pantaloon pants…

Unfortunately after almost 17 years with our family, Patti succumbed to heart disease earlier this week. We love you and miss you, little puff!

Happy New Year! :D

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Helloooo everyone! Happy new year! I hope you guys had a great Christmas and a happy New Year (and other happy holidays too)! Cobalt and I traveled to see both of our families and it was great having time to catch up with everyone. The pictures in this post come from my family’s holiday pictures!

Potassium and Cobalt being photobombed by Finn. Play close attention to Finn’s fin – he’s moving so you can see the books behind it! :)
Fun with my sis! :D

Are you guys excited about 2014?! Any New Years resolutions? Cobalt and I are busy coming up with a name for ours. Last year ours was called “Operation Go for It!” and I think it worked out awesomely! Tune in later to find out all about this year’s soon! It’s going to be an epic year with me hopefully defending in the summer! I wonder where we will be by this time next year… I hope you are excited about all of this because I am… though also pretty scared. This is the first time in my life that I don’t know what I am planning on doing next! Cobalt feels similarly…

Okay, your turns. Tell me about your holidays and new years resolutions!

Congratulations K!

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This picture was taken at the hospital this morning during K’s final round of treatment!

A few months ago, my friend K was diagnosed with testicular cancer. It was really upsetting because 1) he is very young and 2) he and my friend J were planning on getting married 2 months after the diagnosis! Luckily he caught the cancer early so it’s fairly treatable at that stage. K underwent surgery and then had a crazy round of chemo involving 3 cycles of three week intervals – the first week was always the worst followed by two less intense weeks (luckily for J and K, their wedding fell on one of the less intense weeks so K still felt okay for that!). After the first cycle, K’s tumor marker dropped ridiculously low (to the baseline level!) and then it has continued to stay below the baseline level throughout his treatment! I am writing this post today, on K’s last day of the entire chemo treatment, to say congratulations to K for getting through all of this! You rule, K! And I hope that this is the end! No more cancer! Stay away!

Plus I am super excited that J and K finally get to experience being happy newlyweds without pesky chemo treatments getting in the way and making K feel sick! Time to plan that honeymoon, guys! :)

In other news I slipped on ice when I was biking to work this morning. My knees took the majority of the fall but I also bumped my head. Luckily I was wearing a helmet! So now this post is double a reminder to take care of yourself (both staying healthy and checking for various cancers you might be susceptible to as well as wearing a helmet when you are biking/riding your motorcycle/doing other helmety activities)!

What’s new with you guys? Tell me everything!

CU Fashion Show!! Part 2

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All the steampunk Disney princesses because you guys asked for them. Can you figure out who is who?! :)

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Fashion Show Recap! Today’s post has a sneak preview of runway pictures! Are you excited?! I’m excited. Before we get to the pictures, I just want to talk about being a photographer at a fashion show. I was stationed at the end of the runway with a few other photographers and a giant spotlight. The models were supposed to stop for ~ 5 seconds and pose for us, then walk a few feet and pose again before returning back down the runway. The spotlight turned out to be awesome for lighting the models so that we didn’t need to use our flashes but it was hard getting the settings just right on the camera. Each position the models stopped in had slightly different lighting conditions so I was constantly switching exposure time and the aperature back and forth to make sure I got nice pictures of the models at each stop. It was kind of fun! Also, in order to get the models and their outfits to not be overexposed, I ended up sacrificing anything not directly in the spotlight – creating a sort of halo effect around the model. I think it still looks cool, though I am sad that it’s hard to see some of the models’ shoes…

On to the pictures!

I love the back of her dress! Gorgeous… and ruffles!
I know we saw her on Tuesday but she rocked her runway pose! :D Also her outfit and the outfit above are by the same designer.
We saw her on Tuesday too but look at the back of that dress! So neat!
I like her pants! Also I like that her vest is super shiny! :)
I love this picture. I love the motion of the dress and I love her facial expression!
Aw yeah! This is my friend C rockin’ this shirt. Same designer as the dress above. Beautiful work and C is a great model! :D
This is one of the outfits C designed. I love that it’s a hoodie! :D
Steampunk princess! :D
Steampunk princess part 2! :D

I love her scarf! I also love its reflection on the floor!

Yay pictures! Tell me what you think! Do you have a favorite? What’s going on for you guys? At CU, finals week starts tomorrow (our first year has to proctor an exam at 7 am tomorrow!) but I am so far removed from classes as a 6th year PhD student, all the bustling and the stress is kind of confusing for me. I just go to lab every day workin’ on ma science. I had an epic check list of things that I wanted to get done before Christmas but then the lamp for the microscope I was planning on using broke… and then some of my other science decided it didn’t feel like working either. Maybe it’s time for a vacation… It’s not all frustrating though; I finally succeeded in making something I have been working on since JULY. Whew… ahhhhh the life of a scientist. It’s ridiculous.

Okay that’s enough about me. It’s your turn – Talk to me! Go!