(no subject)
Firstly, thank you everso to the lovely xsnarkasaurus for the adorable dragon on my profile! ♥
I had a most wunderbar weekend on a ski trip with my friends! It was preceded by a nutso week. I shall talk about them! (With a couple visual aids!)
Last week my little sister was here! :D She was visiting colleges here in Michigan so she came out for winter break and stayed with my dad here in Ann Arbor. My sis is 17 and awesomesauce, and I love when she's around. ♥ Our daddy made us dinner last Saturday, and we all watched the movie Source Code, which is excellent, just by the way. It's directed (and written?) by Duncan Jones, the son of David Bowie, who also wrote/directed Moon, another excellent mindbinding sci-fi film. He's brilliant and quirky and I highly recommend both his films - can't wait to see what he comes up with next. ANYwhoodle, throughout the week I got to see her now and then, including going with her on her tour of the UMich campus, which was fun and actually quite informative to me! As a grad student I'm not exactly in touch with the life of the undergrads.
Unfortunately I didn't get to see her as much as I would have liked because my pressure in lab cranked up to 11. My experiments hadn't been working for a while, but they finally did on Monday, so I had five days to crank out a shitload of data in order to be able to present anything interesting to my lab this Monday (today), which is when I happened to be scheduled for group meeting. I also had a publication to write and give my boss a draft of, and a big review article I'm doing with my labmates that's been hanging over my head for months. So basically I was pulled in ten directions, plus packing/shopping for the ski trip, so it was a CRAZY week. Successful in the end though, so I guess that's all you can ask for.
Friday afternoon I finished my last experiment and an hour later was on the road with my friends Paul, Laura, and Alison. Laura drove so I could work a bit on my lab presentation in the car, which I actually did, fairly successfully. It was a somewhat harrowing drive because of course it happened to be the day of one of the two snowy weather events we've had this winter (I won't call it a storm, because it was fairly pathetic, but still made driving tricky). I took over from Laura about an hour away from the mountain because the road was terrible, the visibility poor, and the handling of a fully-loaded Civic not the greatest. Anyway, we got there safely and checked into our ADORABLE ski lodge. Our car had somehow gotten there first so Laura and I claimed the "moose bed" (it featured a quilt with meese and other such thematic illustrations). The house was meant for ten people - we crammed in twenty and proceeded to have a blast. We immediately filled the fridge with food and beer (life's essentials) and had a fun night of tasty home cooking (butternut squash soup!) and semi-drunken revelry.
Saturday, almost everyone went skiing or snowboarding, but Laura and I are not much of skiers, so we went down and watched for a while, then went snowshoeing for a couple hours! I've never been before. It took a little getting used to but was ultimately pretty easy and it was so much fun to tromp through all that beautiful snow, especially since we haven't had any this weekend. We then went back to the lodge, ate, napped, I did some work, and waited for everyone to come back for another night of tasty food and drunken revelry. I indulged in too much tequila and Jameson and beer and still woke up the next morning feeling fit as a fiddle? I don't even know. Thank goodness for being 24. I spent a while chatting with an awesome Danish guy named Soren who likes to play tuba, particularly southern jazz (?!). He was fascinating. We played Taboo and dice and Monty Python Fluxx! Fun was had!
Oh and the sunset, seen from our vantage point over the mountains, looked like this:
Laura and me rocking our animal hats
Snow! yay!
Sunday, we had a marathon cleaning/packing session and bundled out of the house by about 11 AM. Most people hit the slopes again, but Laura, Brian, Paul and I went and rented some cross-country skis. We started on the same path we had snowshoed, which was much harder on skis because it was so torn up and in some places you could see grass or even pavement (it was a golf course so there were paths everywhere)! I slowly got the hang of it, though it was a much weirder motion than I expected. I definitely fell on my ass (or side, or face) several times, but had a blast anyway. After about an hour of that, Laura and Brian wanted to head for the hot tub, but Paul wanted to continue, and I was having too much fun so I offered to join him. We set off in search of better trails, and after a false start up another snowshoeing path, finally found the ACTUAL cross-country skiing paths, which were fully groomed, with nice grooves for your skis to fit in. I hadn't realized that was possible - it made everything so much more smooth and fun! I still fell a few times, but also got a lot more gliding in. We did some more difficult and longer paths, and ended up going something like 5 km. There were some steeper hills (I didn't even fall on some of them!) and uphills to conquer. Paul is also one of my favorite people so we just had a delightful time out in the quiet woods, skiing along. :) It was some of the best, most exhilarating fun I've had in a while. We reluctantly made our way back, mostly cause we were starving and it was already later than we'd meant to set off for home. We found our car-mates, had a quick lunch, and hit the road, exhausted but happy!
Oh yeah, Paul is the coolest cat. And Laura in the back there, she's fallen but she CAN get up. With a bit of effort. :)
I got home and had to spend all night doing my group meeting for Monday - didn't finish til 3 AM - but in the end it was a pretty good presentation and the weekend was more than worth it. :)
This weekend was ALSO a fantastic weekend for my beloved football teams. Sadly I wasn't able to watch it live, but since I was off having so much fun that's okay. :) I got back from snowshoeing Saturday to find that Mainz had won 4-0!!! The noise I made when I saw that would have terrified dogs, haha. My beautiful Ádám scored for the first time since coming back from injury, AND it was against the same team he tore his ACL against more than a year ago! I'm so happy for him. Zidan scored his fourth goal in four games for us, bless his heart. My favorite teeny one, Nicolai, also nicked a goal, and EMCM finished poor Kaiserslautern off. It was our big derby too! Beyond pleased to see all my boys so happy. ♥♥
Also happy were my other boys in red and white, who won THEIR derby 5-2! That's right, Arsenal TROUNCED Sp*rs, and it was glorious. They went down 2-0, then came back to score 5 unanswered goals, including a truly glorious Robin van Perfect strike and FINALLY a Rosicky goal after which he looked so happy I got all teary. AND a Sagna header! AND a Walcott brace! Ahhhh! Take THAT, Gareth fucking Bale, with your stupid face and your stupid dives. The relief of the Arsenal boys was palpable, and the Emirates was just hopping (I managed to catch part of the second half on a skippy stream at the lodge). YAY!
Ádám and Mo are my darling derbysieger! <333
Lalala that's it for tonight!
I had a most wunderbar weekend on a ski trip with my friends! It was preceded by a nutso week. I shall talk about them! (With a couple visual aids!)
Last week my little sister was here! :D She was visiting colleges here in Michigan so she came out for winter break and stayed with my dad here in Ann Arbor. My sis is 17 and awesomesauce, and I love when she's around. ♥ Our daddy made us dinner last Saturday, and we all watched the movie Source Code, which is excellent, just by the way. It's directed (and written?) by Duncan Jones, the son of David Bowie, who also wrote/directed Moon, another excellent mindbinding sci-fi film. He's brilliant and quirky and I highly recommend both his films - can't wait to see what he comes up with next. ANYwhoodle, throughout the week I got to see her now and then, including going with her on her tour of the UMich campus, which was fun and actually quite informative to me! As a grad student I'm not exactly in touch with the life of the undergrads.
Unfortunately I didn't get to see her as much as I would have liked because my pressure in lab cranked up to 11. My experiments hadn't been working for a while, but they finally did on Monday, so I had five days to crank out a shitload of data in order to be able to present anything interesting to my lab this Monday (today), which is when I happened to be scheduled for group meeting. I also had a publication to write and give my boss a draft of, and a big review article I'm doing with my labmates that's been hanging over my head for months. So basically I was pulled in ten directions, plus packing/shopping for the ski trip, so it was a CRAZY week. Successful in the end though, so I guess that's all you can ask for.
Friday afternoon I finished my last experiment and an hour later was on the road with my friends Paul, Laura, and Alison. Laura drove so I could work a bit on my lab presentation in the car, which I actually did, fairly successfully. It was a somewhat harrowing drive because of course it happened to be the day of one of the two snowy weather events we've had this winter (I won't call it a storm, because it was fairly pathetic, but still made driving tricky). I took over from Laura about an hour away from the mountain because the road was terrible, the visibility poor, and the handling of a fully-loaded Civic not the greatest. Anyway, we got there safely and checked into our ADORABLE ski lodge. Our car had somehow gotten there first so Laura and I claimed the "moose bed" (it featured a quilt with meese and other such thematic illustrations). The house was meant for ten people - we crammed in twenty and proceeded to have a blast. We immediately filled the fridge with food and beer (life's essentials) and had a fun night of tasty home cooking (butternut squash soup!) and semi-drunken revelry.
Saturday, almost everyone went skiing or snowboarding, but Laura and I are not much of skiers, so we went down and watched for a while, then went snowshoeing for a couple hours! I've never been before. It took a little getting used to but was ultimately pretty easy and it was so much fun to tromp through all that beautiful snow, especially since we haven't had any this weekend. We then went back to the lodge, ate, napped, I did some work, and waited for everyone to come back for another night of tasty food and drunken revelry. I indulged in too much tequila and Jameson and beer and still woke up the next morning feeling fit as a fiddle? I don't even know. Thank goodness for being 24. I spent a while chatting with an awesome Danish guy named Soren who likes to play tuba, particularly southern jazz (?!). He was fascinating. We played Taboo and dice and Monty Python Fluxx! Fun was had!
Oh and the sunset, seen from our vantage point over the mountains, looked like this:
Laura and me rocking our animal hats
Snow! yay!
Sunday, we had a marathon cleaning/packing session and bundled out of the house by about 11 AM. Most people hit the slopes again, but Laura, Brian, Paul and I went and rented some cross-country skis. We started on the same path we had snowshoed, which was much harder on skis because it was so torn up and in some places you could see grass or even pavement (it was a golf course so there were paths everywhere)! I slowly got the hang of it, though it was a much weirder motion than I expected. I definitely fell on my ass (or side, or face) several times, but had a blast anyway. After about an hour of that, Laura and Brian wanted to head for the hot tub, but Paul wanted to continue, and I was having too much fun so I offered to join him. We set off in search of better trails, and after a false start up another snowshoeing path, finally found the ACTUAL cross-country skiing paths, which were fully groomed, with nice grooves for your skis to fit in. I hadn't realized that was possible - it made everything so much more smooth and fun! I still fell a few times, but also got a lot more gliding in. We did some more difficult and longer paths, and ended up going something like 5 km. There were some steeper hills (I didn't even fall on some of them!) and uphills to conquer. Paul is also one of my favorite people so we just had a delightful time out in the quiet woods, skiing along. :) It was some of the best, most exhilarating fun I've had in a while. We reluctantly made our way back, mostly cause we were starving and it was already later than we'd meant to set off for home. We found our car-mates, had a quick lunch, and hit the road, exhausted but happy!
Oh yeah, Paul is the coolest cat. And Laura in the back there, she's fallen but she CAN get up. With a bit of effort. :)
I got home and had to spend all night doing my group meeting for Monday - didn't finish til 3 AM - but in the end it was a pretty good presentation and the weekend was more than worth it. :)
This weekend was ALSO a fantastic weekend for my beloved football teams. Sadly I wasn't able to watch it live, but since I was off having so much fun that's okay. :) I got back from snowshoeing Saturday to find that Mainz had won 4-0!!! The noise I made when I saw that would have terrified dogs, haha. My beautiful Ádám scored for the first time since coming back from injury, AND it was against the same team he tore his ACL against more than a year ago! I'm so happy for him. Zidan scored his fourth goal in four games for us, bless his heart. My favorite teeny one, Nicolai, also nicked a goal, and EMCM finished poor Kaiserslautern off. It was our big derby too! Beyond pleased to see all my boys so happy. ♥♥
Also happy were my other boys in red and white, who won THEIR derby 5-2! That's right, Arsenal TROUNCED Sp*rs, and it was glorious. They went down 2-0, then came back to score 5 unanswered goals, including a truly glorious Robin van Perfect strike and FINALLY a Rosicky goal after which he looked so happy I got all teary. AND a Sagna header! AND a Walcott brace! Ahhhh! Take THAT, Gareth fucking Bale, with your stupid face and your stupid dives. The relief of the Arsenal boys was palpable, and the Emirates was just hopping (I managed to catch part of the second half on a skippy stream at the lodge). YAY!
Ádám and Mo are my darling derbysieger! <333
Lalala that's it for tonight!