Crafting lately

First off, Happy Anniversary to an awesome couple: Grandpa and Grandma Gass are celebrating 60 years of marriage. We are sorry that we can't be there to celebrate with you but we are thinking about you!

Second, happy happy birthday to Angie, my BFF in high school. It sucks that we live on different continents (she lives in Australia) and don't get to see each other as often as we would like. Thinking of you and sending you lots of wishes for a fabulous year ahead! 

Here are a few craft updates, or what happens when Tom isn't around and the Brewers are on:
After taking 6 weeks to make the first baby blanket for Carolyn, I decided to tackle one for cousin Valerie, who is expecting a boy. I had dragged Tom to Hancock Fabrics and asked him to choose a yarn color. He picked this variegated blue. Kelly suggested a granny square pattern. I started and finished, or so I thought. I can be a little bit of a perfectionist and there was no doubt that something was wrong. The corners were running away from me and it would not fold into a perfect square. So I panicked and did the best that I could: emailed Kelly and asked her to look at it to figure out what I did wrong. So apparently, I didn't know how to double crochet. Fair enough. So I had to restart the blanket, which is interesting because I had to restart Carolyn's blanket a couple of times too. Maybe one day, I will just make a blanket without having to start over again. Anyways, armed with crochet hook, I started over. It took me right under 4 days.
Here is the final product:

Just to get an idea of the actual colors

Other craft projects:
Kelly's birthday was an awesome event. We had so much fun (see previous post). Since we craft together amongst other things, I decided to craft a gift. Her favorite team are the Iowa Hawkeyes, colors: black and yellow. I brought this flower arrangement in a Hawkeye painted vase (as well as dinner at her favorite restaurant and a gift card to her favorite yarn store):

It can be used for flowers, corks, bottle caps, or whatever the heart fancies.

Melanie's birthday shower was this past Saturday (again, see previous post), and she got a diaper cake (made with diapers and wipes) and a gift card. I also learned to crochet a flower which went on top of the cake.Yes, that is the Brewer's game in the background.

Post-tulle

Pre-tulle

I started another baby blanket with left over yarn. I have to figure out who it will go to. After this, I want to learn a new stitch, and maybe venture into making garments. We'll see.

Wordless Wednesday

Recap

Tom was in Alaska for two weeks earlier this month, working with middle school children in a science camp called How bacteria and bugs drive the world, which was funded by the NSF:
http://www.uaf.edu/asra/summer-programs/middle-school/2013-modules/critterology/

While he was away, the house got a top to bottom clean. My theory is that when Tom is around, I expect and wait for him to help. When he's away, that option is out and everything gets done.
On Wednesday night of Week 1, I got a call from one of his friends who now lives in Philadelphia. He and his wife have a house in Birmingham that they are trying to sell and needed to come check on repairs. So I hosted Scottish Chris from Friday to Wednesday. I'm glad I had cleaned the house already. I still managed to get some crafts done (see future post) while he was here.
On Thursday of Week 2, I met up with Kelly and friends on her actual birthday at her favorite restaurant, Iguana Grill. We had a great time. We continued her birthday celebration at Kelly's and Pam's forty and fabulous party on Saturday. I brought potato salad (I might have gone overboard a little, with ~12-15 lbs of potatoes). In my defense, the guest list said 30 people were coming. I also brought our wedding cornhole boards/bean bag games. I left for a bit to pick up Tom from the airport, took him home so he could shower, and we went back to the party.

Jamal and Tom, action shot in Kelly's huge backyard

Edgar's competition: Strawberry cake from Emily

 
We were so tired that we skipped a wedding shower/stock the bar party that evening and opted for a quiet meal in. Sunday was spent catching up with chores, aka getting Tom's laundry done and putting away the suitcase.
I'm going to whine for a paragraph. Bear with me. 
Monday was awful - I got ready to go to work and my car wouldn't start. I jumpstarted the car, drove for about 30 minutes, thinking that it would charge enough and would be okay. I got to the parking deck at work and the car wouldn't start again (I should have listened to Tom when he said to take her in to the shop). Now, how to do tow a car that's in a deck (we had tried to jump it again twice and it wouldn't take). So how do you tow a car out of a parking deck? My insurance company called around and found a place that said they could do it. Waited for almost an entire day. Kedria was so nice to let me hook up my car to hers and let hers run for about 15 minutes. That didn't do it. On a hunch, I called MARS, UAB's motorist emergency service, to see if they had any ideas on how to get a car out of the deck. They didn't, but they still sent someone to check her out. The nice gentleman hooked his box to the car and she just started. Really, it was that simple? Yes, I know the box has more juice so that's why it worked. Anyways, cancelled the tow truck service, which still hadn't been dispatched. I drove the car to the regular car shop and they told me I needed a new battery. Okay, go for it. Well, it turns out that one of my terminals was corroded and they couldn't take the battery out of the car without damaging the battery cable. I was told this at around 4:15 pm and that I needed to take her to the dealership. Umm, with an upcoming trip, I just told them to keep the car and I would pick her up on Friday to deal with that mess. When I was ready to pick up the car on Friday afternoon after making arrangements to take her somewhere else, the car shop people informed me that they had found a solution and she was ready to go.

So back to Monday afternoon: Tom picked me up and we went to watch the US soccer game with Colm at Rojo. It was nice to be distracted from car troubles, and the win was great (although the US didn't play that well). 
In the early hours of Tuesday, I left for Crystal City, Virginia for a meeting. Since it was close to DC, I had the chance to meet up with BFF Grace at the National Zoo in DC - We were both excited to see the new panda cub but we were too late and all the animals had been put up for the night.

The National Zoo, yes it is this bright at 7 pm in DC

It was scorching hot in DC, hotter than in Alabama and I managed to get a tan. After the zoo, we met Mauritian Mikrish for dinner in Old Town Alexandria. We went to a place called Nando's, mostly because it's a well known chain in Mauritius. I got home late Thursday night and Friday was a blur, catching up with work and doing trip reimbursement.
Saturday, I went to Stacy's (her house is awesome, I want to buy it) for a shower in honor of our friend, Melanie. Everything was so cute and well done. Much fun was had.

Super adorable diaper cake that Melanie's sister made

Yum, cake!

Adorable monogrammed cookies

Fairy tale/dragon themed treats

After the shower, Tom and I trucked to Leeds to buy fireworks for the annual Larson 4th of July bash. This year will be on a smaller scale. Tom was having a sushi craving, so we went to SPR, a sushi place in Five Points for dinner. We capped with the night with catching up on Game of Thrones.

On Sunday, after my ritual Skype date with my parents, I went to the grocery store (yay for meal planning), and we took care of a few chores. We went to Mafioza's, our favorite pizza place in Mountain Brook and also where we had our rehearsal/family dinner before wedding 2, to meet up with Will and Emily and Matt. Tom and Will were twins for the night. Unfortunately, that didn't bring us luck. We were devastated by the loss but it's still everyone's game. Fingers crossed for Thursday's game! Go USA!

This was a long post and thank you for stopping by!

Happy Friday

I just got back from an invigorating conference in Crystal City, VA. I will post more on this later.
On my flight back to Birmingham from DC, yes, Senator Shelby was on the plane, but so was one of Tom's friends, Robert. He was returning from a job interview at the NIH. What stayed with me, is that he said there was a bear on the NIH campus.
Now, you may know that I love bears. I might have been a bear scientist in a former life or will be one in my next career. So I googled NIH bear and there he was. Cute as a button.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/local/wp/2014/06/19/bear-spotted-in-rockville/

What makes me really happy and absolutely totally made my day, was that NIH bear has his own twitter account, which I have been following. His tweets are hilarious and reveals flaws and challenges in scientific studies and the dire funding situation, all in a light mood and in language that everyone can understand. This is an example of social media done right. Check him out: https://twitter.com/NIH_Bear

Some of my favorite tweets: 

NIH Bear @NIH_Bear :
These soccer players flop like a tranq'd bear from a tree.

Don't want to #savethebees? Teach *your* children to vomit honey.

Look humans, it's simple: no bees = no honey. But also no flowers. No herbivorous sexual reproduction. No fruit. #savethebees

Sigh. There's no room at @NIH for a soft-money bear. I should have gone to medical school.

I admit, ending an IACUC protocol with "And then we eat the rats," has been.. challenging to get approved.

Wait, @NIHDirector, you're rescinding the faculty offer? I wasn't sure, but then you had me shot, drugged, and dragged away. Typical admin.

I disrupted the @NIH for 5 hours an all I got was this lousy R03. Can't run a Bear-lab on R03s!

Also very glad that @NIH has a major #TBI initiative. Because after today, I am sporting some Traumatic Bear Injuries.

You know how that radioactive spider bit that dude and then he was all spidery? Well @NIH tranq darts are *not* like that.

 
Jennifer Victor said: Signs you're a social scientist: @NIH_Bear has better CV than you. (S)he's in sciencemagazine , washingtonpost http://news.sciencemag.org/scientific-community/2014/06/bear-nih-tree-sets-twitter-aflutter …

Summer is here

Well, not officially until June 21 but might as well be.
We had a low-key Memorial weekend. Saturday morning, we went to the farmer's market and were somewhat disappointed - there were radishes, squash, and a few tomatoes. Maybe some peaches. I think the winter is to blame. We tried Vittoria Macelleria, a new Italian restaurant that cures and ages their own meats. Their house sausage biscuit is to die for. We also caught an early showing of the new X-men movie, which was really good. For other meals throughout the weekend, Tom grilled some brats and sausages, we had corn on the cob, and a broccoli salad. I also made crockpot ribs that were just delicious.

Other happenings: I finished cousin Carolyn's baby blanket (32 inches by 28 inches) with a lot of help from Kelly (thanks for hosting craft nights!). I hope that baby Lillian gets a lot of use out of her blanket.

This one gives you an actual feel for the colors

On Friday, Kelly and I went out to lunch (yummy Indian food) and made plans to hang out that night as well, since her cubs were playing our brewers. Tom had to work late, but we tried this new bar called Paramount and then went to On Tap to watch the game. Colm had joined us and so did Tom once he was done with lab. Saturday, Kelly and I co-hosted book club (loved the book Poisonous Science which turned out to have been written by a former UAB department chair, Henry J. Forman). Kelly offered her house and I brought fixings for a baked potato bar. Sunday was spent cleaning the house, I mean deep cleaning, and working on a new baby boy blanket. Kelly told me about a granny square pattern, which turns out to be super easy and quick (hopefully I did it correctly).
On Tuesday, while contemplating what to do with leftover baked sweet potato from book club, I came across a recipe for sweet potato muffins (with a glaze, which didn't really look like a glaze in my version). I guess they were good, since I brought the whole thing to work on Wednesday morning and by the afternoon, they were all gone. I also pickled the radishes that Tom had picked out at the farmer's market but didn't have a chance to eat.

That is all for now. Thanks for stopping by.