forever and a day

Wow, it's been over a month since I last updated, but I can explain! If anyone even still reads this thing... I wouldn't blame you guys for giving up on the blog, but I will be back now. In the past month, I have: had my 4 year anniversary with Brent (yay!), helped to organize a department poster conference, made my first research poster ever, gone to the first World Series game ever in Denver (yay Rockies, I still love you!), finished a 57-page (including figures) paper about my research to give to a committee of 5 people, given a 10-minute seminar talk about my research, and completed my second comprehensive exam. The comprehensive exam, aka COMPS II, involves me giving the aforementioned paper to a committee of 5 professors/researchers to read, and then a 2 hr oral exam/presentation, where I give a 30-40minute presentation about my research, then answer general audience questions, and then have a closed door q&a with the committee only. Which I passed!! Yay!!! Now I just have to research for the next 2.5yrs or so, and prepare a dissertation to defend, and then I get to graduate with a PhD. So crazy.

Anyways, here are a bunch of pictures of everything. I can't figure out how to rotate the ones that should be vertical in blogger, and I tried to rotate them before uploading them and that didn't work. Not cool, but at least they uploaded! Okay now here they are:


We gave each other the same card. I LOVE this picture.


A really-truly from-the-florist bouquet, just for me.


My research poster, in really low resolution. It was really 4ftx4ft, but that made it a super huge file.


Me at the WORLD SERIES!! Brent and I had so much fun, and everyone there was insanely excited. My arm was sore for days afterwards from swirling my ROCKTOBER towel (see later picture for example of another person) so much! The whole audience would swirl their towels to encourage the players... I don't know how anyone could not feel inspired!


The gamepost sign at Coors Field... that says Rockies AND World Series on it. Such a pretty sight!


What we hoped would happen... poor Rockies. I don't think that long break did them any favors, but the Red Sox definitely outplayed them. It's okay though... they still won 21 of 22 games before the world series started! Or was it 22 of 23? I need to look that one up.


Packed house, just before they introduced our Rockies.


A fellow towel-waver... can you imagine how it was when everyone was doing it? So cool! Plus now we have workout towels that say Rocktober, woot!


During the national anthem, sung by Carrie Underwood. The flag was so beautiful, and boy can that girl sing!


National anthem fireworks.


Goofy picture of Brent & I at the WORLD SERIES!!

ROCKTOBER

Holy Frijoles, the Rockies just swept the Phillies to continue on to the NLCS for the first time in team history!! If you don't already know, the rockies ended their season to win 14 of their last 15 games to get the national league wildcard spot in this year's playoffs. And that was just the 2nd time in team history too! And after a 13-inning game against the Padres to get the wildcard! Wow. I've been up watching the game all night, and time flew because it was so close and suspenseful... I was so stressed out watching it. Now I've got to sit back and read a book or something until the adrenaline wears off and I calm down. I think I definitely need to get a Rockies hat soon!

The governor of Colorado has officially declared it to be Rocktober, so lots of the news stations are following suit.

In other news, the CU Buffaloes beat 3rd ranked Oklahoma State last weekend, and destroyed Baylor today (43-32)! Also very exciting, since the buffs haven't been too awesome in recent years. It is so exciting to be in Colorado now!!

Following are a few screenshots of local headlines... GO ROCKIES!

it's been a while...

I know it's been a while since my last post... again! After the last update, Brent and I headed out to the bay area for a wedding, and I got to go on a short road trip to Mendocino with my Mama. We went up from the south by via hwy 1, and stayed at a really amazing b&b in a redwood forest for a night. The next day, we headed back down through the Anderson Valley and into Santa Rosa, where we met up with my bro for dinner. It was so great to get to just relax and spend time with Mama and bro. We get along so well and we're all like best friends now, so we have lots of fun whenever we get to see each other.

The wedding was at Tilden Park in Berkeley, and it was gorgeous. I feel so lucky that the bride let me attend with Brent! They were all in a group of friends together in high school, and I'd heard a lot about her over the years. The ceremony was outdoors, and the reception was in a beautiful gathering hall, complete with tons of delicious food and fun music and a cake that was SO GOOD. Congratulations, Jessie and Rob!!

It was really nice and super fun to get to see old friends (dinner/dessert with Phoebe and Vivian was a blast, and it's nice to know I'm not the only one who gets tired early these days!), meet new people (yay more of Brent's high school friends), and spend time with family (yum, lunch with GMR was great!). I just wish we were there longer, because I missed out on seeing Haleh and other awesome people. Next time, I hope to be able to add relaxation and seeing everyone to the list of things I get to do!

Anyways, here are some fun pictures from the trip. Woot!
The bride and groom's first dance!


The amazing views from hwy 1 on our way to Mendocino.


The main farmhouse part of the b&b.


This barn at the farmhouse has also been converted to guest rooms, and it's surrounded by a garden. You can kind of see the forest in the background.


Our room at the b&b.




The clawfoot tub in our bathroom had painted toenails!


Glass beach... very neat. This town used to dump glass into the ocean here, and over time, the ocean wore it down into soft pebble-sized pieces.


Tired family picture.


Bro and I, goofing around.


GMR and I... we do look related, don't we? I never realized it until this picture!

BurnOut

I think I stopped doing anything interesting, and then I got out of the habit of updating the blog. But last weekend, we did something interesting! And, we're getting ready to do more interesting things!!

SO last weekend, we decided to go to the Taste of Colorado festival... it's in Denver every Labor Day, and lots of restaurants and vendors set up booths for food, games, and freebies. The festival was less awesome than I hoped it would be, but it didn't matter, because we really went out there for the FREE NIGHT RANGER CONCERT!! That's right, Night Ranger, the band that brought us Sister Christian in the 80's. Sister Christian just so happens to be one of my favorite cheesy 80's songs, so we went with 2 other grad students to check it out. Night Ranger definitely did not disappoint! They were really friendly and happy to be there, and they played all of their big hits at the end of the evening. While it left me restless during the early parts of the concert waiting for the good stuff (refer to the video below), we were totally energized and singing when we headed back to get the car. What a fun night!

This weekend, we're going to the wedding of a very good high school friend of Brent's (Yay, Jessie and Rob!), which we will be attending with more of Brent's very good high school friends, and then I get to travel the coast up to Mendocino with my Mama, and THEN I will hopefully get to see my bro. Plus, I will hopefully get some girlfriend time in. I am SO looking forward to everything! I promise to return with more news, more pictures, and more frequent posts in a week. Until then, enjoy this video of Homer Simpson at a concert, which my officemate predicted would be me at Night Ranger!

yikes!

So when we moved, I walked into the trailer hitch on the back of the uhaul we had rented, leaving me with two ugly bruises that sat over two hard bumps on my poor shin, one each from where the top and bottom of the hitch had hit. The next day, a portable metal shelf fell on my leg, an inch to the right of the trailer hitch injury. It hurt SO BAD, even after lots of ice. I could walk on it comfortably after a little while, though, and I could walk fast on it without much pain after a few days. Anyways, there are still three bumps under my skin, but the bruises are almost gone (it happened Aug 1-2, and I'm still waiting for them to heal up all the way!). I took a picture on the 3rd or 4th to document my poor legs, and here's how it turned out. Do you think I could use some sun in a bottle?! I don't think being a grad student scientist is helping my extreme whiteness.

living with macgyver

So this weekend, Brent and I bought a $5 hot glue gun from home depot, and I feel like even that was overpriced. As soon as we opened it, the plastic stand fell off. Thankfully, the boyfriend is an engineer, and armed with just some pliers and a paperclip, he went to work. Sadly, the gun didn't even work when we plugged it in, so we have to return it, but here is the evidence of all of his hard work:



If you enlarge this one, you can see him curling the ends of the paperclip to make it fit in the notches of the glue gun. It even folds in!


The finished product, with its upgraded paperclip stand.


Being a silly dorkus after sitting for many pictures.

phew!

Holy frijoles, people! The day before (a couple of days before?) my last update, Brent left town for a business trip to Anchorage (a sunday afternoon). That Wednesday, my super awesome friend Haleh came to visit until Friday, and it was SO much fun. We did the Celestial Seasonings tour, prarie dog stalking, pearl street shopping, dinner at chautauqua dining hall, browsing the farmer's market, hanging out at the Stanley Hotel (where Stephen King wrote The Shining), and Rocky Mountain National Park. It really reminded me about how much fun and important it is for me to have some high quality girl time, and it was so so so nice to spend quality time with a good friend who knows me better than most people. Yay, friends!

After Haleh left on Friday am, I cleaned the house up and hung out until leaving for another trip to the airport to pick up Brent after his flight arrived at midnight. It didn't really arrive until 12:30, and we didn't make it home until 2am... crazy! I was exhausted, so it's a good thing that Alaska is 2 hrs behind Colorado. Brent was much more awake, and managed to drive us home from the airport. Anyways, so that's why I haven't updated lately. Things are much calmer now, so hopefully I will be able to be a much more attentive blogger! Here are some fun pictures from my girl-time adventures. I miss you already, Haleh!


Dinner at Chautauqua Dining Hall!


The Stanley.


Drinking iced tea/coffee on the grand porch of the Stanley.


Haleh, just before we forded this raging river!


Blue Jays kept us company during our picnic lunch, but were disappointed if they thought they'd get any food from us.


Sisters! (Did anyone else ever dress like their friends as a little kiddo and pretend to be sisters? No? You totally missed out!)


SO pretty.


Seriously, how amazing is this picture? Haleh was like the elk paparazzi while I drove, and she took such great pictures!


Elk nuzzling or play fighting or something... and such a pretty background!


The clouds on the drive back.

a chance to breathe

We have now officially moved, and things have been going nonstop since my last post. After Brent passed his oracle exam, we started packing in earnest and didn't stop with the business until, well, we really haven't stopped being busy yet! We finished moving out by the 30th, when housecleaners came. I definitely recommend hiring people to do move-out cleaning, rather than trying to do it yourself. It only took the professionals 1.5 hrs to do what would have taken Brent and I a full day, and the price was really really reasonable. Tues the 31st, we finished moving some last minute stuff out of the old place, filled a moving truck with our belongings from the garage, and got the carpets cleaned. Our landlord was very happy with the condition of our condo, so we got the full deposit back, which was really great and such a relief! We unloaded the truck on the 1st, and since then we've been trying to figure out where everything should fit in this new place.

At first, I was a bit sad to be leaving our old place, but now that we have most of our stuff unpacked, the new place is starting to feel much more like home. It will be really nice when it's all unpacked and set up, yay! Following are some pictures from the move, in chronological order from move-out to move-in. Can you tell we're tired in that last one?!

Sorting through strange things from my desk while packing and going loopy!




Brent, being a moving stud, in a picture that wont go vertical. What a guy!

success!

Brent had his exam today, and he passed!! He is now officially an Oracle Certified Professional, which means that his work will possibly consider him to be even more awesome than they previously realized. It's the second out of three oracle certification levels, so this proves that he knows his oracle database stuff to his current and future employers. Go Brent!

** Brent would like me to make the following change to this post: He says, "But I do have to mention that the third level requires that I shell out a ton of money if my company wouldn't cover it, and a 2 day (full day) test." So this second level is plenty awesome for him, and the third isn't going to happen any time soon because it's a pretty ridiculous certification process. Okay, that is all. **

To celebrate, we went out to dinner and a movie (Ratatouille, totally cute). It's probably our last fun night until we're done with our move, but it was really nice to get out and have a great time. Here's a picture of the happy oracle certified professional:

lately

Things are starting to get a little busier around here. Here's some of what's been going on lately:
1. I ran 30 minutes without stopping last Thursday! Seriously. It was so cool, and something I've never done before -ever- in my life, so that was awesome. Hopefully I can pull a repeat performance some time soon. Today I only made it 15 mins running without stopping, but then we lifted weights and did ab work and lunges. I can officially not do a bench press even with just the bar. It was funny, sad, and embarrassing at the same time. I was trying to push the 45 lb bar up (with Brent spotting), and it ended up being each arm alternating pushing one side up. Something to work on. For now I'm doing some kind of dumbell press with 10lb weights and it's pretty tough, but it'll help me be strong enough to do a real bench press someday.

2. Brent is studying for his oracle certified professional exam. Very exciting, and a good challenge, though he's so smart I'm sure he will be fine. He's been studying all the time for the past week or two, after more casual studying for the past few months. The exam is Tuesday, so wish him luck! Here's a picture of the stud while taking a practice exam tonight:

3. My bell pepper plant is doing SO well! Also, my mint seems to have made a truly amazing comeback from near-death. Compared to earlier pictures I've posted here, it's out of control!

The poor mint seems to have gotten a little sunburned with all of the heat lately (see #5), so it's now safely in the shade.



4. We're moving in a week. Well, really in 9 days, but we have to completely empty our current place next weekend, in time for cleaners (yep, we're going to pay people to deal with the shower grout, baseboards, etc, a result of one of Brent's best ideas yet) to come next monday, and carpet cleaners next tuesday before we turn the place over. I started packing this weekend, and so far I've done some kitchen stuff and part of a bookcase, plus some other stuff to top off boxes of books once they'd reached their maximum weight for me to carry. This week we'll have to really get serious about packing in the evenings so that we don't have too much to do next Fri night and Sat. I am kind of conflicted about moving, because we're having to leave our first place together, and we love our neighborhood and condo. However, we're moving to another really nice place (albeit with a parking lot view) and it'll be really close to where we live now, so hopefully it will be an easy and good move. I will definitely miss the trees outside of our windows, and the grassy fields nearby, and our adorable neighborhood.

Sad, empty bookcase.


The first few of what will soon be many boxes.

5. It has been hot hot hot. Today almost made it to 100 degrees (see weather chart below), but thankfully it's a dry heat, so it doesn't feel as terrible as it does in Texas when it's 100 degrees! Boulder often ends up with afternoon thunderstorms when it gets this hot outside, but we haven't gotten much rain at all in a long time. Hopefully we'll get some soon, but the forecast isn't encouraging. It definitely reminds me to appreciate the fabulous, newer, low-cost air conditioning that our landlord installed!

Yes, it's weather data from a wx station on campus... would you expect anything else from me?!