Wow… it’s been a while since I’ve written. So much has been going on in lab recently that I have really only had time to eat, sleep, and think about science. Whew…. sometimes things get crazy with grad school.
Anyway, some of the craziness ended on Friday when we had a huge lab cleanup to prepare for the big lab move next month. It was ridiculously epic. I was sooooo busy taking care of all the old expired chemicals we found in the weirdest places (thanks to the student I inherited my workspace from… NOT happy with him right now). After all of that, A and I took our giant stuffed sharks on a walk. While we were out playing with my camera and the sharks, one lady walked past us and asked us if we were taking our whales for a walk. A and I just looked at each other for a second and nodded as we passed. Then we burst out laughing… they’re sharks, not whales! Geez! Anyway, we (and the sharks) had so much fun this past weekend so I thought I would share some pictures – up there they are both sitting in a pine tree (obviously). Down there, there’s Fernando trying to eat an out of focus Prius and Gustav and me doing a silly dance…
Did you guys do anything fun this weekend? Have you seen any fun sharks? (Thanks Natalie for the picture last week. Totally made my day!)
Tag: photography
Shark Friday
These past few weeks have been super busy for me mostly due to things going on in lab. However, while I was away in lab, my sharks got to have a lot of fun this week. First Banana Shark got to have Orange Julius and pie on Pi Day and then yesterday five of my sharks had the pleasure of chasing me around the apartment complex when I got home early from lab. These pictures were super fun for Cobalt and me to take… I have been planning this shoot for a while now. Unfortunately the sun got in our way a little bit (hence all the crazy flares) but no worries. We just might have to do it again… I had originally planned the shoot to use three people and not just two so we’ll just have to try it again… perhaps we’ll take the sharks to the park! :) I love Banana Shark in this bottom picture…
I hope you have good weekends!
Painting with the moon
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
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!
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?
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…
Boy Scouts and Tire swings: Part 2
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
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
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
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)?
Potassium Photography 