Milk and tea pots: An experiment in fixing a hairline crack

I drink herbal tea nearly every day. I love it. Typically, I keep the process simple: 90 seconds in the microwave, tea bag in the hot water, let it seep for 5 minutes, sip cautiously until it no longer burns your tongue, then drink with abandon.  But one day I decided to be a little fancier. I decided I would heat the water in the tea pot I received as a gift from a friend.

Gifted tea pot. So cute, no?

I like to blame my next decision on the fact that I have two ceramic pots that do just fine over direct heat. These pots do not, in fact, make alarmingly loud popping sounds approximately 8 seconds after you place the pot on the stove causing you to panic and grab the pot off the burner and groan aloud because you see that, yes, yes you did just crack your little pot by placing it over direct heat.

Clearly this little tea pot is not like those two ceramic pots. Rather, direct heat causes this cute little thing to develop a hairline crack. This is, according to Will, the norm for ceramic things; my two non-cracking pots are apparently quite special and have other materials to help them manage the heat. (Late edit per Will's request: the "other materials" include cast iron.)

Anyway–sorry, little tea pot. My bad.

Hairline crack #1, right along the bottom of the pot.

Hairline crack #2, continuing to the other side of the pot.

I was sad for a few weeks about the ruined pot. It could still hold some water, in a sense, but the water would begin to bubble and trickle through the crack, searching for any sort of escape route. The tea pot was useless, but I didn't want to throw it away. Then, by chance or by a stroke of inspiration, I googled how to repair a tea pot and ran across some claims that heating a tea pot in milk can seal off small hairline cracks. Supposedly, as the ceramic material expands in the heat the warm milk can slip into the crack and then, as both the pot and the milk cool, the protein or some other part of the milk acts as a bond. I ran the idea by Will and he agreed it was worth a try.

The process is quite simple. Place tea pot in slow cooker (or in a pot on the stove, but I was a little gun shy about that option at this point). Add enough milk to cover tea pot. Heat for a few hours. Let it cool over night. Rinse old, gummy milk from tea pot and test the crack. Realize it actually worked! Feel very self satisfied.

The milk developed a strange film over the pot, making it look somewhat otherworldly. Loch Ness Tea Pot.

And it's still working, weeks after the repair. I tested it again today. I added some water and let it sit  for an hour or two, to see if the bond had weakened. So far, so good! Not even one little bubble or trickle has escaped through the crack (which is still visible, but is sealed off).

Lesson #1: Do not heat ceramic tea pot on the stove! (But I'm sure you all already know this since apparently that's common knowledge, unless you are like me and have a skewed sense of what's normal for ceramic kitchenware...)

Lesson #2: Warm milk is glorious! It can correct all kinds of harebrained ideas.

• Decide to go running when the temperature is in the single digits, leading to a sense of being frozen and depleted of energy? No problem. Heat some milk, add some cocoa and be back to normal. (For real, I've heard chocolate milk is one of the best things for women to drink after intense exercise to replenish the calcium in the bones and energy in the body) 
• Decide to make saag paneer but don't want to spend loads of money on a small block of paneer? No problem. Heat some milk, add some lemon, and make some paneer. 
• Crack your own tea pot?! No problem. Warm milk has you covered.

A Review of 2013

We didn't create a Christmas card for 2013 but if we had, we may have highlighted some of the experiences and decisions we made in 2013.

 Trips of 2013
After years and years of living in the Boston area, we finally saw Cape Cod. We went camping there with friends, drove to the tip to admire the view, and drove back to Cambridge. We don't do weekend trips as often as some, but we're hoping to repeat this again next year. I also took a trip to England for work, to a small village with one hotel that was surrounded by sheep and horses, small gray stone cottages with beautiful English gardens, and fields of beautiful flowers and weeds. Yes, even the weeds were beautiful there. I loved it.


We also went to Kuna and Logan over the summer and during Christmas, which was wonderful. Being near family in the West always makes us hopeful that someday we might be able to move to a place near family and wide-open space.

Enjoying being the tour guide of the summertime mountains.

Our final leg of our trip home from Christmas: a 15 minute walk from the T in the snow with our luggage.

Experiments of 2013
In terms of long-term consequence, our professional experiments are likely to be the most important. I experimented by taking an industry position and learned a ton along the way, before deciding to leave in November to try some independent work. Will made steady progress on his research all year long, culminating in a fantastic way with a Cell publication and an agreement by his committee that he will graduate at the end of the summer(!). The hunt for a postdoctoral position is on... 

Additionally, in the realm of domestic experiments, we attempted to grow another outdoor potted garden and again met minimal success with this experiment (I believe the total yield was enough for one salad), in part because the pots were small and in part because I forget to water them everyday. Sorry, plants.  We learned how to make excellent saag paneer in the kitchen and molten lava cakes in the outdoors. I believe my favorite experiment in recent memory was fixing a hairline crack in my teapot by boiling it in milk for a few hours! Who knew such a thing was possible?

We also attempted a few artistic activities including pottery and glass blowing, which was definitely a highlight of the year.

Our sole cucumber, which saved itself from being consumed by being weird looking.

Dutch oven molten lava cakes, idea courtesy of Russell. That's right--we come to friends' dinners to impress.

Will at the wheel.

Molten glass on a stick.

Hand blown ornaments.

Merry Christmas.

Sights and experiences of 2013
Seeing Will on a daily basis, seeing him work and laugh and read and just be with me is perhaps my favorite sight and experience every day.

Beyond that, a contest of intricate sand castles at Revere Beach inspired us, as did seeing a field of flags in the Boston Commons on Memorial Day. Each flag represented one soldier, one soldier who sacrificed life for our freedom. We loved having family come visit us in Boston and hearing how they also loved the beauty of this city and area.

The sirens and the chaos of the Boston Marathon bombing, shooting and manhunt were nerve racking for me. But I remember also feeling deeply grateful this was a rare event, feeling grateful for the safety we are afforded by living in a land of relative peace and security.

The sand castle you wish you could build.

2013 was good to us. Here's hoping the same for 2014.

Uprooted

Today was already a good day. Work was fairly good, my walk home was pretty, the rain went away and was replaced by some early evening sunshine, and we're grilling tonight. Sidenote: Grilling is my favorite. Delicious food with minimal prep and cleanup (because Will takes care of nearly everything). The gas grill was a fantastic invention.

Anyway, as I was saying, today was a good day and then it became even better because as I arrived home, my neighbor (a sweet older woman who only speaks Portuguese) said something to me. Since it was in Portuguese, I didn't know what she was saying but then her daughter interpreted for me: "Would I like some flowers?" I was a little confused, but of course happy too (who doesn't want flowers?). "Sure!" So my neighbor just reached down and ripped some plants out of the pots they were growing in, roots intact, and put them in a plastic bag so I could replant them. I am actually quite tickled about this, but I have no idea what kind of plants they are. Can anyone reading this identify these plants?

I think my neighbor said the top one would get blossoms. The lower one almost reminds me of some sort of cabbage because the leaves are quite firm; my sister said it might be sedum. Regardless of what they actually are, I am excited to add them to our garden. Yes, we have a garden. Climbing up our steps

and onto our balcony.

 Soon (as in tonight, hopefully) we will hang more plants from the balcony. Mystery ones, as well as another tomato plant and some flowers. I am so excited!! We had a garden last year too but it was a failure because our pots were all too small. I bought bigger pots/planters this year and hope it works out. Also, I hope our garden doesn't attract rats because if it does, I think our landlady might kick us out. She likes us but sure does hate rats with all the passion in her 5'2 soul. Fingers crossed that there are no rats, the pots are big enough, the squash is an itty-bitty squash, the sweet peppers grow and that our uprooted mystery plants take root and are beautiful/edible. If nothing else, they'll be a reminder of the generosity of our neighbor and I think that knowledge alone will  provide its own kind of beauty and nourishment.

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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!!"