Just keep snowing, just keep snowing

We had a snow storm. You probably already knew that. It was a really, really big one. You probably already knew that too. But see, here's the thing - I wasn't too convinced all the fuss would amount to much at all because Boston has had quite a few false alarms the last little while. No false alarm here though. Nemo was definitely a persistent little guy.

It started gently enough, with pretty snow flakes Friday afternoon. I got to work from home because on Thursday the governor declared a ban on all driving and commuting after 4pm on Friday. (My sister was asking me why that was. It's not due to a lack of snow clearing vehicles but rather because when you live in a city with narrow, twisting, one-way streets, it's impossible for snow trucks, ambulances, and other critical vehicles to do what they need to do if commuters are clogging the roads. It is a hot mess when all the commuters try to beat the storm at the exact same time others are trying to deal with the storm so it was a smart move on the governor's part.)

Will came home at his normal time. We ate, watched a movie, and by the time we went to bed at midnight the snow had already quietly settled into a relentless rhythm.

The view from our bedroom of our front lawn and the stairs leading up to our apartment at midnight on Friday. For context, there had been exactly 0 inches of snow on the ground at noon on Friday.

 By Saturday morning, Boston was muffled and softened by the aftermath of Nemo. When we woke, everything was quiet. We first heard the sound of our landlady exiting her apartment. She saw this:

Our front lawn around 9am Saturday morning.

 She's a good landlady who didn't go on her ski trip because she didn't want us to have to shovel the snow. We were grateful because there was indeed quite a lot of shoveling to do. Here's an image of my car:

Don't be deceived into thinking this is a little lump. My car is a RAV4, not a hip little European thing.

After 30 minutes of shoveling, I had achieved a small measure of of success (don't worry, I kept at it).

I've learned (the hard way) that when you shovel a car from lots of snow, you actually do need to clear out from under the carriage because cars will indeed high-center on snow. Also, clear out the snow from your tailpipe before starting it or you risk carbon monoxide poisoning. I didn't think about that two years ago when I was in a rush and forgot to clear my tailpipe. Luckily, I was actually driving not just warming up the car so it melted quickly enough there was no issue with carbon monoxide. However, I did get some funny feedback with my engine and a Check Engine light. Who do I decide to call? That's right, Will, my then ex-boyfriend who was sweet enough to come look at it for me. And I took him to lunch for payment (for real-this wasn't a way for me to make a move or something) and we had a great time together. It's no exaggeration to say that was the beginning of our reconciliation so sometimes good things come from snow storms and little mistakes.

Will went to work for most of the day, so I strapped on some snowshoes and walked him to work before exploring the rest of the snowy city. Here are a few shots from that trip.

The pretty park we get to walk through on the way to Will's lab. For a sense of depth, there are park benches between the lampposts and the trees.

Bike rack at MIT.

Sledding at the Stata Center.

Skiing on Massachusetts Avenue.

Some people really like to wear shorts, even in 2-3 feet of snow.

Patriotism in Cambridge.

Impulse Purchases and Tracking Wildlife in the City

Sometimes we go to the grocery store together and end up making impulse purchases that look like this:

One part of that impulse purchase stems from the fact that my office did a Yankee swap for the holidays and the requirements were: purchase a calendar under 15 buckaroos (what a funny word that is) that is humorous, interesting, awkward but still office appropriate, wrap it, and add it to the pile of funny/interesting/awkward wrapped calendars. Proceed with traditional Yankee swap.

I ended up with this beauty, because nothing says professional like a homage to processed meat from the 1950s.

One unexpected bonus is that the calendar provides 12 (!) spam recipes including Spam 'n Lima Bean Platter, Spam Salad, and Double Baked Spam. Now, truth be told, I had never eaten spam prior to this gift which Will thought was a bit of a travesty. So--bada-bing bada-boom--suddenly we were purchasing a can of spam! And chocolate pretzels because we all know they at least were going to be delicious.

In other news, sometimes when I walk home from work I end up looking like a snowy bear (who likes to wear fun red down coats).

And then I when I get home and I see tracks in the snow and I wonder if they are rat tracks. We have rats around our house (much to the horror of our landlady who unfortunately is terrified of rodents especially, apparently, rats). A few nights before the following photo was taken by a world renowned wildlife photographer, Will came home a and mentioned there were rat tracks outside so when I saw these I was pretty excited to see what he was talking about. And, frankly, excited that I even noticed them at all because they were pretty small and I was in a rush to get into the warmth. Will can't confirm these are indeed rat tracks since I didn't put a penny down or something to provide a scale for the photo but I'm pretty confident they are. We're gonna say they are, anyway.

Finally, I close with this little photo that was taken a week or so before Christmas. It's the Boston skyline, which is beautiful in and of itself especially when you're crossing the bridge on a clear cool night. What made this view especially lovely though is the cute little sailboat in the bottom left, all lit up to celebrate the season of light. It made me feel all happy inside when I saw it the first time and then again when I found it in my phone. Belated Merry Christmas to all.

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.