My famous husband

Watch here:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/video-of-the-week/2012/05/09/where-the-wild-types-are/

Steal this, Fool!

A couple of weeks ago Will finished his latest lab project.  After a couple of hours of work, he looked over toward me and said triumphantly "Steal this, Fool!!"

'Fool' is this case refers to The Thief, the person who has been stealing Mac laptops from Will's research building for the last seven or eight months. It started out simply enough: a laptop went missing early last fall and then some weeks later a second laptop went missing. The third, fourth and fifth laptop disappeared soon after and concerns began to rise. All students started investing in quality laptop locks.

Some laptops went missing over Christmas vacation, leading to suspicions of an inside job since only those that should have been in the building could have been in the building at that time (the building is secured with card access after hours, on holidays, and on weekends). The disappearances became more regular and more bold. The Thief would strike in the morning, afternoon, and evening. S/He would strike on weekdays or weeknights. S/He would hit all the different labs in the building; all five floors were wary of The Thief.

Will's lab had its first casualty in January when one of the undergraduate students had her laptop stolen. For three days, she planned her revenge in the form of phenol/chloroform (as Will says, "Nothing like organic solvents in the face to ruin your day"). The grad students convinced her that murder/disfigurement wasn't necessarily the best idea, but they did think some shock therapy might be in order - if they could set up an electrified decoy laptop, wouldn't that be awesome?! Will was certain we could find an electric fence transformer for less than $50. (I was concerned a lawsuit could arise from that so they backed off that idea.)

Unfortunately, perhaps some shock therapy was actually in order because The Thief struck their lab again in March, when s/he stole our good friend Katie's laptop which was locked with a standard laptop lock that had been snapped in half. Katie bought another laptop and an even nicer lock.  The Thief then struck again, stealing Katie's second laptop in the middle of the day when Katie slipped out for ten minutes. Katie was upset, the lab was bothered, and Will became obsessed focused on devising a plan to make his laptop theft proof.

We spent our date night and FHE night at Home Depot, thinking through possible options. (Honestly, Will thought through the different options while I tried to hide my skepticism of his 'drilling into his laptop' plan and just helped him look for things. It turns out I am very good at finding things at Home Depot.)

Here is what we bought, all for $20 (plus potting supplies for my strawberries. We have a stair garden! Blog post to come on that.) Will was excited for the needle files (the things on the left, for those of you who are file-ignorant like me).

Here is Will working on his laptop. (Isn't he handsome?)

Here is the finished product after 2+ hours of sawing a metal framing bracket, bending and filing that bracket, drilling itty bitty holes into the side of his laptop, and finally securing the shiny new bracket piece with itty bitty bolts. Will has officially chained his laptop to his desk, prompting the understandably triumphant, "Steal this, Fool!!"

Happy Easter

To celebrate Easter, we had a wonderful time at church and then made a delicious dinner. We marinated and grilled steak, roasted some potatoes, made a simple salad and also tried out a new recipe for bread. The bread entered the oven as a fairly normal-sized loaf and then was magically transformed during the cooking process, exiting the oven as a loaf bigger than my head!

Hurray for our Savior, the gospel, family, nice spring weather, a ward choir performance that included the use of a zither (or a similar instrument), and all the other things that made today and so many other days wonderful!

Our first disagreement

In all actuality, we didn't have a disagreement but Will likes to tease me about a certain something that I say sometimes. You know those padded, fabric things that protect your hands from getting burnt? What would you call those things?

Hot pads?
Pot holders?
Or how about hot pad holders?

That third one - that's the one I use because I like to cover all my bases when it comes to dangerous things. Or, I suppose, when it comes to respecting the very things (in this case, hot pad holders AKA pot holders/hot pads) that protect me from dangerous things. It's like when a King is called the Anointed King of Wisdom and Glory over His Great Land.

Redundant and slightly incomprehensible? Yes.
Awe-inducing and captivating? Yes again!

Just like Hot Pad Holders, the Pads that Protect My Hands From Holding Things. Or, as Will keeps chiding, Holders for the Pads that are Hot.

P.S. Google Images validates me by providing images of "hot pad holders." Will reminds me that just because you can find things on the internet doesn't make it legit.

Recent events

Life continues to be good here on 7th Street. The basic components remain the same - lots of lab research for one of us, job searching and part-time work for the other, keeping up with the apartment, working on our callings in the ward and, of course, enjoying our time together. However, though the basic components are the same, the last few months have been fun for us.

Many of our date nights are spent relaxing at home watching old shows on Netflix. Monk, Stephen Fry in America, and Top Shot have been some recent favorites. Will loves Monk and I always thinks I do too until that awkward spot 35 minutes into the episode when the bad guys realize Monk is onto them. That part always makes me curl up and partially hide behind Will's arm because I'm slightly terrified something tragic will happen, even though it's only Season 1 and therefore I know nothing too tragic will happen. 

We both enjoyed Stephen Fry in America, though it was sad that Idaho only got about a 4 minute clip and it was basically just clumped in with Montana. Excuse me, Mr. Fry, but I think that was a mistake. Boise Fry Company alone could have made it worth the trip a few hours west to Boise. (That's really only a partial exaggeration. The fries and burgers are quite excellent.) Utah fared more generously, with a great review of the southern Utah. It made us want to go hiking in Zions National Park sometime soon.

Anyway, TV shows aside, we also try to get out of the house sometimes. A couple of weeks ago we took a tour at the local chocolate factory, Taza Chocolate. This company controls the entire process of the chocolate making, from bean to bar, so it was a great opportunity to how chocolate is made including roasting the beans and everything. It was also a lot of fun because we got all kinds of samples! Salted Almond is still our favorite flavor, but it was fun to try the other options.

We've both recently been on trips. In February, Will went up to Canada to fancy Banff Alberta to present his research at a conference on metabolism and cancer. He really enjoyed his time at the conference and was even able to squeeze in a day of skiing with his lab mates. Last weekend, I flew the opposite direction to El Paso Texas to see my dear friend Lisa get married. The Scottish/Texan wedding was held on St. Patrick's day and was a fun blend of kilts, bagpipes and Texas BBQ. I was only there for two days but was still able to get some good Mexican food, some sunshine and do some cowboy boot shopping for my friend. Overall, it was a productive trip. I was glad to get home though to help take care of Will who was attacked with a pretty nasty illness that weekend.