birthday madness

Here are some pictures from Brent's bday yesterday. We went out to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, and then came home for ice cream cake from Ben and Jerry's. It had a base of big chunks of brownies, topped with a layer of triple caramel ice cream, and with a layer of butter pecan on top of that (I know what my boyfriend likes!). I wanted to make him the special dessert he had growing up, but I haven't had a lot of time with all of the schoolwork I've been doing. I'm going to make it for him after I've turned in all of my research projects (the last one is due May 7), when I'm happily not taking classes for the summer!

Oh yeah, and I forgot to say in the last post that the picture of us at a baseball game was from his birthday a few years ago, when he turned 22 and we'd only been going out for like 6 months. Now we've been together for 3 and a half years and he's 25... crazy! Anyways, it's like one of my favorite pictures of us. Okay, now enjoy pictures from this year's birthday.


Brent's presents and balloons, waiting for him to get home from work. Note the dinosaur balloon. Yay!


After being opened. Plus a pomegranate Izzie... the best fruit soda ever, times ten.


The crazy delicious birthday cake.


Side view.


Brent with his cake!

Happy Birthday Brent!!

Today is Brent's 25th birthday woohoo!! Yay boyfriend!

kind of sad post

Okay, I admit it... I watch American Idol. I know, I know, it's not exactly quality tv like the Discovery Channel's Planet Earth specials (which are so cool, by the way), but it's great for relaxing at night. Tonight was the "idol gives back" special, and it was really eye-opening to see some of the things that are going on in the world around me. It has really made me want to be a better citizen of the world, which sounds kind of cheesy. It's just that I am so lucky to have all that I do, and I feel like maybe I should try to make more conscious decisions about how I spend my money, and things like that. I think I'm going to now try to buy things that actually contribute to helping others when I can (ie: that product red stuff at gap, if I need a tshirt anyways), along with products that are better for the environment. Apple even has a product red itunes gift card... it costs the same as other gift cards ($25), but apple gives 10% of the purchase price to the global fund. I don't understand why everyone doesn't choose these when giving an itunes gift card. It doesn't cost any extra, and it actually helps others in need. There is also a really cute tote bag that the UN's World Food Programme is selling on amazon. For $60, you get an awesome durable bag, and a child in Africa is fed for an entire school year. They say that this improves school attendance, and girls who go to school often wait to marry and have half as many children. It's just so sad that there are so many people in Africa (and across the globe) who don't have access to the vaccines and medical care that they need, and that so many children are having to grow up without parents because of it. I don't understand how things got so bad in so many places.

I'm sorry for the totally downer post, but the footage on the special was really powerful and really sad. The next post will be about Brent's birthday, though, so it will be way more fun, I promise!

pretty pretty morning

This morning, waiting for the bus the view of the flatirons was amazing. It snowed in the mountains while it rained in town yesterday, so now the air is clear and the top of the flatirons are dusted with snow. I forgot my camera, so here are some pictures from the local webcams. The first is from the campus' webcam that looks out at CU Boulder (all the red tile roofs) and the mountains, and the other two are from the local nbc station's live cameras that overlook the front range.

Campus' webcam.


9news webcam #1. The foothills are so green... this is the view I see when driving around town from my condo to campus.


9news webcam #2. This is a view of the frontrange from Denver.

downpour!

Yesterday afternoon, a storm arrived from Utah that gave us some really exciting weather. At about 5pm, thunder and lightning preceded some really hard rain, along with hail! Now, I know this hail was NOTHING compared to Texas hail, but it was still pretty fun to watch, and it wasn't so big that I had to worry about my car. I have plenty of vivid memories of hailstorms in Texas, and I'm sure that's a big part of why I went into atmospheric science in the first place. There were all kinds of crazy thunderstorms during my summers in Fort Worth and Arlington. Also, one of my earlier memories is when my Mom, bro, and I still lived in Fort Worth. There was a big thunderstorm, and it was hailing outside. Mom went outside to grab some of the hail so that my bro and I could get a good look at it, and I was terrified that she would be hurt! Everything turned out fine, of course, and we kept the hail in the freezer for a while after that.

Anyways, the thunderstorms cleared up and it was just mildly cloudy for a bit yesterday early evening, but then they came back with a vengeance once the sun went down. There was plenty of thunder and lightning, so it was a really good show. That let up for a while, but by the time we got up in the morning, it was raining, and it hasn't stopped all day!! It was supposed to maybe be wet, sloppy snow as well, so the rain was really nice. We definitely got a good soaking (at least a couple of inches), and I'm sure things will be nice and green for a while to come.

In other news, Brent's 25th birthday is coming up this Thursday! I am very excited about it, so hopefully he'll like what I've gotten him. Woohoo! I turn 24 next month, and I am fully planning on teasing him about his age, because 25 rounds up to 30, but 24 rounds down to 20! That's not to say that 30 isn't young too... with as fast as my early 20's have gone, I'm sure I'll be at my 30's before I realize it, and I plan on that being plenty young as well. Either way, I can't believe that I am getting to be so much older than the college freshmen I see walking around on campus. I will be 6 years older than next year's incoming freshmen... aaahhh! I'm starting to feel it too... lots of the girls in the 18-20 year old range seem to be wearing leggings and jelly shoes and big shirts. I already did that... in the 80's and early 90's! I can't believe that a trend that I fully participated in when it was cool the first time around is back. It's totally crazy. And as long as I'm on this tangent, I just want to state my official opinion that the 80's look didn't look all that great in the 80's, and it doesn't look any better now. So there!

Anyways, here are some fun pictures of the storm yesterday afternoon. Yay weather!


The flower petals from the tree outside our office went EVERYWHERE.

Downpour!


Zoom in on the hail.

Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day today in Boulder is beautiful! In fact, it has been a great weekend outside... yesterday, we rode our bikes all the way to the farmer's market (on the other side of town, a 20min bike ride), and the path took us through a neighborhood, then along a trail through open space filled with geese, and finally along the Boulder Creek Trail, which was amazing. The creek is full of meltwater from up in the Rockies, so there are little rapids and tons of plants and critters. Once there, we got two yummy falafel and hummus gyros for lunch, and we picked up some local made gnocchi and garlic and herb goat cheese spread that is so so good. I love, love, love Boulder.

Being as I am an atmospheric and oceanic scientist graduate student, I thought I'd take today's post to really try to emphasize that our planet is really, truly, for sure changing due to man's influence, and most of these changes are not good. It is depressing, and not something fun to think about at all, but I think it's important to realize that there is a lot that each of us can do to help. I know that the news stations often discuss climate change, and that in order to show a "balanced view," they interview a scientist who believes that global warming is happening and greatly impacted by mankind's activities, and they have that scientist debate another scientist who disagrees with that view. However, 99.9% of climate scientists do believe that the activities of humans over the course of the past 200 years have impacted the climate in a negative way. That is, these "balanced debates" aren't really balanced, as there is a clear consensus in the scientific community about this issue. It is no longer a question at all. I have heard lectures by countless climate experts, and I have read many journal articles and attended many classes, all of which discuss irrefutable evidence that we will have HUGE problems in future generations, unless major changes are made. The moral of the story: global warming is real, mankind has influenced this in a big way, and we can all do things to help.

If you want to read some great articles about the state of our knowledge today, as well as simple things each of us can do, and some great photos of how global climate change is already impacting the world today, here are some great links:

• Time article: 51 things you can do http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/environment
• Time article: What we know today http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1176980,00.html
• (note, the above link is to a long article, but it is very well written, and I think it really covers the information I have heard in lectures and papers by experts in the field).
• Time slideshow: http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/2006/global_warming/
• Earth Day Network: http://www.earthday.net/
• US Gov't Earth Day Website: http://earthday.gov/athome.htm

Now, I'm sorry if this whole post sounded super hippy or liberal or anything, but I really find this cause to be very important. Also, it's Earth Day, and it is MY blog!!

A lot of the suggestions in the links above are very do-able, and not too expensive or anything. For example, buying local produce... all of the farmer's markets I have been to have not been dirty or hippy or anything like that. Rather, there are tons of families with their kiddos, getting to sample tons of fresh produce and play in nearby parks, all while supporting local farmers and getting foods that taste better than anything you can get at the grocery store. Also, you can get super hot deals on the energy efficient light bulbs at costco, and I bet at sam's club as well. They last years longer, save money in the long term, and the appearance of the light isn't substantially different than normal light bulbs. One last easy idea is to see if your local energy company gives customers the option of purchasing some of their energy from wind power, or other more environmentally friendly sources. I know that xcel energy here in Colorado allows us to buy some or all of our electricity from wind farms.

I hope that if you aren't already at least giving some of these ideas a shot, that you might consider it. Take a trip to a local farmer's market one Saturday or Sunday morning, or buy one compact flourescent light bulb, and maybe you'll like it! If not, at least you've given it a try.

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

update of DOOM

I'm sorry that it took me so long to update (again!)... Brent and I got back from CA on Monday, and then I had to work constantly to get through a terrible, horrible, long homework for my advanced fluid dynamics class. You don't want to hear the whole back story about the class, but suffice it to say, I am taking an advanced class about a topic I don't know, with a professor who's not exactly fantastic at teaching. Every homework assignment requires skills and techniques that we aren't taught in class, and they always end up being at least 15 pages long by the time I turn them in. Enough unpleasantness, though; the assignment was due yesterday, and it was the last for the semester! Now I just have two research projects to do for my classes, and then it will be summer vacation in a couple of weeks... time sure flies sometimes.

California was tons of fun, and it was sad to leave after such a short trip. Hopefully, our next trip will be longer, so that we can both see our families and friends for more than a few days! Our flight out was uneventful, which was great (I had expected more turbulence leaving the rockies than we experienced, since it was a really windy day). My super nice and very cool brother picked us up from the airport, and after a good night's sleep, we were both off and running. Brent's dad and two aunts picked him up from our house, and they went off to San Francisco for the day. In the meantime, I had a dentist appointment and hung out with Benjamin for a while. I also got to meet his girlfriend, and she was super cute and super nice. Go bro!

Thursday was wine country with Brent's family (his mom, dad, and aunts), which was totally gorgeous and really fun. Brent and I are not fans of wine, so we joined his mom looking around the vineyards while his dad and aunts did some tasting and buying. We didn't bring our camera, though, so I'll have to post pictures once Brent gets some from his family. Either way, before we left, Brent's dad worked on installing some new cabinets in their kitchen. They decided to redo it, and he has such amazing carpentry skills that he decided to design, build, and install the kitchen himself. Their whole garage is now a carpenter's paradise, complete with a ventilated, sealed off spray area for the varnish that he's putting on the cabinets. They really do look amazing. Here's a picture of Brent watching the others do the hard work!



Friday, I had an eye doctor exam, which Benjamin again was super nice to drive me to. I didn't have my sunglasses with me (left them in Boulder), so I got to use the silly wrap ones they give you for free. I had always remembered being completely embarassed by them when I was younger, but this time I thought they were awesome! They were totally hilarious, and from the front, they had the same silouette as the giant sunglasses that younger celebrity people wear (you know, like the Olsen twins). It's funny how things change the older you get! Friday night, my Mom was off of work for the weekend, so it was the first time we got to really hang out and relax stress-free. We had a lot of fun eating a yummy dinner, watching tv, and talking. I have so much fun hanging out with her, and I was so happy that we'd have the rest of the weekend to spend time together woot! Unfortunately, Brent's family and friends were also having a dinner in San Francisco the same night, so I wasn't able to go. Our next visit to the Bay Area will hopefully be longer, so that we'll have more time to see everyone. Friday night with my family, though, was perfect!

Saturday, it was rainy, and I got to hang out with Mom and Benjamin, since we had set it aside as family day (along with Friday night). We checked out some open houses near Mom's house, and one was really great. Another was huge and built in 1920, so it was really beautiful. However, it was crazy expensive, and had termites, so I hope they have luck finding a buyer. We also had dinner with GMR (my Grandmother Rook... GMR for short), which was tons of fun as well. I wish I had stolen the camera from Brent on Saturday so that I could have taken pictures, but I'll have to be sure to have it on hand next visit.

Sunday, Benjamin headed back to Sonoma, and I had brunch with Phoebe and Vivian, two of my oldest, and closest, friends. We headed out to downtown Campbell, and wandered around the local farmer's market while we waited for a table at the restaurant. I ended up buying the best strawberries and oranges that I've had in a long time. I guess living in Colorado can help a person appreciate farm-fresh citrus and berries! I also got to visit Trader Joe's for some goodies since the stores haven't made it to CO yet. Mom and I drove up to Danville to grab Brent and to have dessert with his parents. He and I shared this apple pie sundae thing at Marie Calender's, and it was insane!! If you go with a group of people, you must order this dessert. It was crumble top apple pie, topped with ice cream, whipped cream, and caramel sauce, all in a HUGE dish... we couldn't even finish it together! Monday am was our flight back at 6:20am, and since then has been schoolwork (school is yuck sometimes!).

Tonight, we watched Flushed Away, and oh my gosh if you haven't seen it you must!! It's like that sundae thing at Marie Calender's. Brent even made it through the whole thing without falling asleep, so it must be amazing. I think it was almost mostly for big kids and grown-ups, with a fun plot thrown in for the little ones. Of course, it wasn't crude or anything, but it was hilarious. The special features on the DVD were also great... they had a behind the scenes of the actors and actresses who voiced the characters, and one about the music in the movie. The music one was pretty cool to watch, but then I'm a band nerd, so I love that kind of stuff!

Now, Brent is happily doing his most favorite thing (sleeping).

If you've made it to the end of this post, congratulations! I'm sorry it took so long for an update, and that the update turned out to be a novel. Now that I'm done with the homework, and I'm back in the swing of things, my posts will hopefully be more frequent and readable! As a bonus, I'll throw in some pretty picture of spring, which has definitely sprung here in Boulder!

The tree outside of the office window is blooming, and the blossoms smell as amazing as they look.


A look up at the sky, through the tree.


Pretty tulips, randomly growing on the side of the street.

vacation!

I'm sorry about the delay in updated posts... Brent and I are preparing to go to California tomorrow for almost a week. We'll actually be there for just 5 full days, since we leave tomorrow night (we don't arrive until like 10:15pm, which will actually be 11:15pm for our bodies), and then we come back to Boulder next Monday early morning. Our flight leaves DIA tomorrow at about 8:30pm, and then we leave San Jose International at like 6:15am on the 16th. Two of Brent's aunts will be in town, so he planned on visiting CA this week, and I decided that it was as good a time as any for me to visit as well. It is kind of strange not to be going during school holiday time, but I will only be missing one class on one day, so it worked out well. I know a few people in the class that I'm missing, so I should be fine to get notes and everything.

Many of you know that I'm not exactly a fan of travelling by airplane. I didn't really like it when I was younger, but then I was okay with it throughout high school, until I had a bad experience on a flight, and now I'm not too good at it. I'm basically terrified of a plane crash, or something going wrong where it explodes in midair or something horrible like that. Since I had vertigo last summer, I developed a bit of an anxiety problem, which just makes my fear of flying even worse. This is why I have pretty much avoided taking trips where I have to fly alone at all costs. However, I have been getting better, or at least my round trip last Christmas for a week wasn't too bad, and I'm hoping this flight will go just as well. I know that I just have to keep flying, and I will get over it eventually, but the point is, I am not looking forward to tomorrow evening at all. It's so not fair to have to pay a chunk of money to do something that I hate, but at least I am doing it so that I can see people (and a kitty) that I love, and I wont have to do it alone (yay for Brent!). This summer, we are thinking that we'd like to maybe take a trip to Texas, since Brent hasn't met my family there, with the very important exception of my Dad and Taherah. I want him to meet my grandparents and aunt and uncle and cousins, because I know that they will love him. That will be good flying practice as well, which I need to keep doing as often as I can afford to.

Last weekend was really icy and freezing, until Sunday late afternoon, when all of a sudden the sun came out and it warmed up a good 10 degrees. We went to another grad student and his wife's house to dye easter eggs and have a bbq. I brought leftover noodles and salad, which were super yummy instead of sausage or salmon (yuck!). It ended up being so much fun, and playing with their cats made me very excited to get to see Jilly (my family's 15 year old awesome kitty) tomorrow night. By the time we headed home, there was barely any snow left along the roads, and the road itself was dry. I love that about Colorado!

On Saturday, we stayed home all day because it was so unwelcoming outside. We opened Brent's scrabble game and played it for the first time... it was really fun. Even though Brent lost two turns (he challenged one of my words, and he exchanged his letters once), he still beat me by a good 20 points or so... and my words were even less common than his!! Oh well. I'm sure with practice I can beat him bad one of these days!

While we're in California, I probably wont be able to update the blog since we don't have fast internet there. I will, however, be back in a week with lots of pictures and stories to add. I hope everyone has a safe and happy week! In honor of the trip, here are some pictures of Jilly, being a tiger. I LOVE my kitty.


She is viscious!


In the jungle (under the Christmas tree).


The best cat ever. EVER. Seriously, a 15 year old who still likes to play? How much cooler can a kitty get?

the battle

This morning, the weatherman said that in April in Colorado, there is often a battle between winter and spring. "Today," he said, "winter is winning." Usually when it rains or snows here, there are big clouds throughout the day, then a downpour or quick hard snow for a few hours, and then it clears up. Often, the sun even ends up coming out, and if it's warm enough, you can hardly tell that there was any crazy weather at all. I guess I've gotten spoiled by that, because today was gloomy and grey, with a constant light drizzle all day long. Don't get me wrong... I like it when it's grey and cloudy occasionally because it makes all of the colors of the plants look richer and more vibrant. This constant drizzle is majorly uncool though! Plus, it's so cold that the drizzle has frozen on everything, leaving a layer of ice on my car, and frozen water drops on the trees and grass surrounding our complex. In summary, I guess it was pretty much a stay-inside kind of day. It's supposed to be like this through tomorrow, but with some snow starting this evening. I kind of hope it does snow, because the snow is so pretty, and then I wont feel like we had this drizzly day for nothing. Also, snow is definitely easier to walk on than ice! Tonight, Brent and I will eat yummy warm food, and watch a movie in our nice heated condo, and it's going to be great! The perfect antidote to cold, freezing drizzle.

On the plus side, I did take some neato pictures of the ice and frozen droplets!

The Blazer is so cold!


Our gloomy street.


Frozen water droplets on some little green leaves.


If you enlarge this picture (ie: click on it), you can see the frozen drops on the blades of grass in the background.


I just like how this picture turned out... clearly I was having some issues getting the camera to focus on what I wanted, rather than the background, but I still think this turned out neat.

happy hair

I finally got a haircut today, and I think it made my hair a lot happier. It had been 4 months (my last haircut was just before Thanksgiving), so I really needed it. Yay! Sorry for the blurry pictures... I took it without a flash because it was in the mirror. Oh, and note the super cute navy blue belted jacket I'm wearing... I got it a week or two ago with my jcrew gift card from my Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas. I've been holding out for something awesome, since I'm a cheap grad student, and this is perfect! I can wear it on cool summer nights, or on cool spring days. Very exciting!

Brent and I also did dinner at another grad student couple's house. Every few weeks a small group of us gets together for a potluck dinner, and it is always a lot of fun. Tonight, we had enchilada casserole, salad, chili bread, guacamole and chips, and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies... sooooo delicious!

Sunday, the sky went 'aaaaaaaa' (imagine choir of angels)

Sunday afternoon, when Brent and I were returning home from errands (seriously, the grocery store is so not fun anymore), we looked up and the sun was shining through the clouds above the gorgeous Flatirons. All I could think of was those cartoons or movies or whatever when the sun rays are shining through the clouds and a choir sings. Either way, it was beautiful. I managed to take a few pictures of the pretty sight, though there are neighboring apartment complexes that also made it in the pictures. Still, hopefully this will help you get the idea.
The view from our driveway/parking lot. Note the large potholes in the road... it freezes here in winter!


Another pretty view of it.


...And a close up. You can kind of see some of the snow in the Flatirons too.


Bonus picture of pretty trees near our complex. Lucky you!

TMJ=not cool, but rainforests=super cool

Spring break has now ended, and I've spent today and yesterday getting back into the swing of things. I am taking a seminar-style course about paleoclimates (the climate throughout history and prehistory), which is really fun. Each class meeting, we all sit and discuss a scientific journal article or two, which are assigned in advance by the professor. Two weeks ago, I signed up to be the leader of the discussion for today's class. I figured that it would be a good time to present, since I would have all of spring break to read the assigned article and create a powerpoint presentation about it. Unfortunately, the professor had trouble finding a good article about the time period we were set to discuss, so I didn't get the assigned reading until Sunday night. Needless to say, yesterday was a full day of powerpoint action. In the end, I think it worked out well, and it was definitely a good way to push myself back into coursework and research after a full week off.

The article I presented was actually super cool... it was about a possible rainforest that existed 64.1 million years ago in Castle Rock, CO. Castle Rock is located about 40km south of Denver, so this is really close to Boulder, and I think it is really neat. If anyone wants to read about it, the scientists who study the rainforest have a website at http://www.paleocurrents.com/castle_rock/ . There are lots of neat pictures and explanations of how they found and excavated the fossilized leaves. According to my super smart and very informed geology grad student classmates (I'm the only atmospheric and oceanic sciences student in the small class), the research seems pretty solid, though as with all science, there is a measure of uncertainty. This doesn't mean it's wrong though! That's just how science works!

In the meantime, as many of you know, I have been dealing with TMJ disorder. This basically means that my jaw muscles aren't moving around correctly, which results in sore jaw muscles, a locked jaw, and me grinding and chomping my teeth at night. My TMJ disorder is so bad that I've also ended up with cervical vertigo, tinnitus, bad neck and shoulder pain that radiates up to my head, and bad headaches. Now that I have the diagnosis of TMJ disorder, I've been able to get treatment for it. My dentist and physician both recommended a bite splint, so a lot of money later, last Monday I went in to pick up my custom made splint. It is supposed to make it so my jaw joints sit properly, so that my jaw muscles will then relax and relearn the correct way for them to open and close and move around. I'm sad, though, because the splint is SUPER dorky. However, if it will help to fix my TMJ, I am happy to use it. I'm willing to do anything to make the symptoms go away. Hopefully, this will do the trick. I have to wear it full time for the next couple of weeks, and then I can taper off to just nighttime. I can already feel the difference and my jaw does seem much happier.

If this doesn't take care of all of my symptoms, I will need to try physical therapy, and potentially other alternative medicine techniques. I also have muscle relaxants prescribed to me by an ENT (ear-nose-throat doctor) for nights when my neck and shoulders are really bad. Anyways, below is a photo of me with my appliance on... it kind of looks like putty spread over my bottom teeth, doesn't it?! It is really hard, tooth-colored acrylic that's molded so it snaps onto my bottom teeth. It's blurry because I had to take the photo without a flash.

See how long my hair is?! Tomorrow, I'm getting a haircut, though not too much off. I'm excited though, because I haven't cut it since just before last Thanksgiving, so my ends are getting scraggly.