Basil Update

Grown up right nice. See their younger selves here.




(Note difference in scale between the two plants by the railing behind them.)

Defense Weekend

Hooray for me!

After the defense

And then a quick trip to Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH, where great fun was to be had before quickly returning to Ann Arbor for my sister to catch her flight back to California.

Doctor, me???

A title that I'm feeling pretty weird about. Of course, not a whole lot of people are going to call me that since I'm not entering academia!

ALL DONE!! I DEFENDED LAST FRIDAY, JULY 27, 2007!!

It hasn't sunk in yet, but it's been such a wondeful experience, I love the people I work with, and all my friends are such supportive and fabulous people.

More to come with pictures...

:)

(I'm procrastinating right now. I have revisions to do :P )

Tornado Warning

No better time to catch up on my blog! I'm supposed to be at a meeting, but I've been sequestered in the libary. Drat. :P I think I've been led into the basement and to the center of the building. It's weird. They just left us in the hallway. Yet, I still have wireless access. Wonderful. Meanwhile, I'm thinking about my basil plants as they sit out on my porch exposed to the elements. I kind of want to see this so-called tornado that the midwest is supposed to have. I'VE never seen any! Pah! In my whole 5 years.

In other news... I turned in my written dissertation to my committee last Friday. !!! Eeps! I should feel more accomplished than I do right now, but I realize that it's only a rough draft, to be ripped apart during/after my defense. I did have this un-wipable grin on my face for the rest of the day though. :)

However, the impending doom of this defense is looming... I hate public embarrassment. My whole family is coming into town, and I think a bunch of my good friends and sort-of good friends are coming. Now, I'm okay with being embarrassed in front of my family, but people who know me and somehow think I'm smart?? Aah! I know one committee member is going to grill me, and I'm afraid. AFRAID!! The committee is filled with physicists, and I'm... not one.

Wish me luck!

Adventures at work

amayzlo:
omg.

r_45pete: what?

amayzlo:
my finger is stuck in my desk drawer

r_45pete:
no
still?

amayzlo:
yeah
left hand

r_45pete:
what the f***
how?
why?
how are you typing?

amayzlo:
can't get past the 3rd finger knuckle

r_45pete:
no f***ing way

amayzlo:
hahhaha
omg

r_45pete:
yeah I wanted to laugh but thought Id leave that for later
...

amayzlo:
hahaha
okay, i yanked it out

r_45pete:
is it later yet?...

amayzlo:
yup

r_45pete:
ok hahahaa
you OK?

amayzlo:
i mean, how the heck did that happen?

r_45pete:
yeah?
was there some candy in there ?

Seoul and Japan Trip

A few pics from my trip!

The gang on a night out in Seoul after a long day at the conference.

Palace... I don't remember the name...

High rises in the back of a historic treasure. Pretty common for Seoul.

Me in Shibuya!

Ah! Crazy number of people crossing.

Fun shopping!

Fish market

Engrish in Hakone. Read the fine print.

Golden Palace in Kyoto.

Encounters with Daily Strangers

Contact with Old Man Bus Rider! For the past few encounters, I've started smiling and saying good morning to him. Yesterday, I found out that he works at Nickel's Arcade for a few hours every morning. :) That makes me happy. It was weird because he has a hearing aid, which meant that I had to speak loudly, which was even more uncomfortable than I had imagined.... yelling in a quiet bus full of groggy people.

I also saw gimpy tumor squirrel again around the same place. Naturally... of course! Squirrels have homes too. Let's try to remember that.

Basil

I have 2 kids:
Say hello to Basil, Jr. (Basil died last year)

and Basil, III

They have grown a lot since I first got them! I'm the type of person who likes to watch the grass grow, so I'm quite proud of my Basils! Wish me luck on keeping them alive!

Congratulations, Counselor!

My sister graduated!

We went to dinner at Boulevard in San Francisco and it was DELICIOUS! Because we waited 20 min for our reservation, they gave us complimentary appetizers. They served a thin slice of ahi on top of whipped avocado, and it was all topped off with caviar. Mmmm... Next, sweetbreads, which had the consistency of a clam and tasted like yummy bone marrow. Below are our entrees, which were goo-oood. Clockwise around the table: halibut, lamb x2 (prepared in 3 different ways, including lamb cheek shepherd's pie), and guinea hen with morel mushrooms.

I always forget what a small world it is. Audrey's good friend is good friends with my good friend!

Lunch time

I rarely go out to eat for lunch, but I just got back from California yesterday so I didn't have much in the refrigerator. I treated myself to two slices of organic pizza. It was a nice day, so I headed over to the Diag to sit on the lawn and have a lovely little picnic. Of course, I didn't want grass stains and was wearing a skirt, so I put down my notepad and sat on that. Mmm... one slice gone. I picked up my second slice and started to eat it when the sprinklers (facing away from me) started to go off. Uh oh! I got up, picked up my notepad and then felt water on my head and back. Think quick! I covered up my pizza with my notepad -- now my notes were wet and had pizza sauce on them. Great. Way to rain on my parade.

I went to sit on a concrete bench in a concrete plaza. But! When I sat down this odd little squirrel came out from underneath the bench. It ran funny. Like it had stiff hind legs. I think it may have had a tumor hanging from its abdomen. I watched it hobble away from me, and then watched a guy stop in his tracks to watch it for a couple minutes, and then take out his phone to take a picture of it.

Eventful lunch for Mayz!

Puppies and mirrors

What happened to dogs not being able to see 2D? Apparently that is just a myth.

GRADUATION 2007

I'm delayed in posting pictures, but still, most schools haven't even had graduation yet. Crazy, huh?

And the chocolate cake with graduation hat:

Thanks, sis, for sending me this song. Love the crackling voice!



In other news, my sister has also given me homework.

Watch Grey's Anatomy Seasons 1 & 2
Due Date: May 18

I'm going home May 18, and at that time, will receive Season 3 from her. Now, I've seen a few episodes and know the basic story line but have never become a religious watcher. My sister told me that I had to watch from the beginning to acquire character attachment. I've finished Season 1 Disc 1, and now am in love with McDreamy. Those sneaky twinkling eyes...

NEW HEROES EPISODE TONIGHT!! DON'T FORGET, EVERYBODY!!

CELEBRITY SIGHTINGS

I have to keep track. :)
I sat across the aisle from Dan Rather on my way over to New York this past weekend. I love free upgrades. Oh, hello, Dan Rather.

I contained myself through the entire 2 hours that I was sitting next to him, all the while wondering why the woman sitting on the other side of him hadn't said one word to him yet. I would have to yell across the wide aisle, and she was *right* next to him! I'm also chicken. I waited until we were deplaning and for him to tell me to "Go ahead" to talk to him. That means that I said "Thank you" back to him. :)

So here's the count (concerts don't count):
Freddie Prinze Jr.
Claire Forlani
Mandy Patinkin
Angie Everheart
Ziyi Zhang
Chris Kattan
Jennifer Aniston
Frances McDormand
Joan Cusack
Catherine Keener
Josh Harnett (x2)
Lucy Liu
Enrique Iglesias
Uchenna & Joyce (Amazing Race)
Laura Linney
Phillip Seymour Hoffman
Regina King
Mike White
Adam Brody
Molly Shannon
John C. Reilly
Tom Arnold
Kevin Bacon
Camryn Manheim
Terry Hatcher
Alan Alda
Kathryn Morris
Daniel Dae Kim
Roger Fan
Dan Rather

OLD MAN BUS RIDER IS BACK!!!

I saw him this morning. His hair is longer than normal, but otherwise, he looks pretty much the same. I wonder what he's been up to. Maybe he got a nose job. ;) Hahaha...

ST. PADDY'S DAY IN CHICAGO

I had a pretty Irish St. Patrick's weekend. Although, being a bit sickly throughout the whole weekend trip, I didn't drink a drop of alcohol. However, I still had a great time as I got spend the weekend with good friends and sorely missed friends. Three of us from Ann Arbor trekked over to Chicago Friday night, met up with Jessi (who flew from Denver) and Marwa (our "local" ;) ) at a bar near Marwa's 21st floor apartment. We closed the bar, and then set an alarm for the next morning so that we would have the potential of watching the parade the next day and the dying of the river. Yeah right. We could see the river from Marwa's apartment, and we gave up on the parade pretty quickly. But what was with the river? We waited and waited for the river to turn this bright radioactive-looking green, but it never happened. Only when we roamed the streets did we see some green. Why so skimpy this year, Chicago?


That night, we went to a place called The Abbey, paid the best ever spent $10 cover, and listened to a handful of Irish bands... and then bagpipers!

Next we watched about a half hour of Irish dance. Adults, teenagers, and kids came out and performed routines in front of their proud parents and friends, and a bunch of drunken party-goers. Hooray! Very cultural of us.



The next day we went to Millenium Park, where the famous shiny bean is. Look, we're like cartoons. Torsos the same length as our legs. :)

MORNING BUS RIDER

For the past year, I've reliably seen an old man (~70 years old) on the same bus everyday. The 8:57 AM bus. He's usually on by the time the bus reaches my stop, and then he gets off at State Street. He wears a maize and blue jacket and maize gloves. In the summer he wears jeans and often a fashionable white button-down. Recently I have not been keeping a regular schedule, but I don't remember seeing him for a month. I took note this morning to check for him (as I am often caught up taking care of my bumbling self in the morning) and didn't see him. I'm a little worried. :|

BUTTER 'N THINGS

There's been a lot happening with my friends here. And with my new interest in making and decorating cakes, I made cakes for their big events. Here's cake #1 for Nadder's birthday, a chocolate cake with coffee butter cream frosting.

And there was an engagement and a graduation. You can see the red velvet cake in progress. I still have to work on my piping. :) Maybe I should move on from the ziploc bag.













And then I made a chocolate cake with ganache for Pete for Valentine's Day, but I didn't manage to get a pic before I left with it... maybe because the butter started to separate from the chocolate. :( I have to work on my chocolate. However, he sent me some lovely lovely flowers. Orange lilies, orange gerber daisies, brandy roses!

NEWFOUND PROWESS

I have lived on my own before. I've done a lot of things by myself for my place. But ever since I started living with my male housemate, I've sorted just left some things for him to do. Like, for instance, hooking up cable, modems, changing light bulbs... Well he had been gone since last Friday, and on the first day, the light bulbs went out in the ceiling fixtures in the kitchen. Crap! It took me 2 days (as was also busy) to replace it because (1) had to figure out how to get to the light bulbs in the fixtures (2) had to go buy light bulbs (3) had to replace light bulbs. This is ordinarily a task I just let my housemate take care of. I dunno, silly, especially since I'm taller. I was pretty proud of myself for having done this task.

Another empowering event involved the tremendous snowfall we got over the past few day. Now, this might be just something a Californian had yet to experience, but it snowed about half a foot overnight. Normally, my neighborhood is really good about shoveling snow (even before I'm out the door), but I had to make first tracks yesterday morning! When I got home after a day of working, I had to take my car to go to the gym, so I got all dressed to do some dirty shoveling. I shoveled the steps to our house and shoveled around my car! Very satisfying. Got in my car, burned a little rubber, but got out of the snow!

Thank you, thank you.

CONGRATULATIONS, DR. TSE!!!

A nice stamp of the 3 letters Ph.D. to commemorate a tremendous body of work packaged together in a nice neat bow. Great job!

Much delayed pictures that I took of the crazy freezing rain a few weeks ago. I thought that "freezing rain" sounded pretty treacherous, but really, it was quite beautiful.


Crazy sideways ice:

Dear It's-It,
Oh how I lovingly remember you from my childhood and how I've reveled in your rediscovery. Your delicious vanilla ice cream embraced comfortingly between two spicy oatmeal cookies (mmm... oatmeal cookies) all enveloped in a chocolate coating makes me want to have you every night.

But why why, It's-It, do you evade me so?

I've looked for you all over Vail, Ann Arbor... I'd take you home from the grocery store in the Bay Area and then fly you over to Ann Arbor with me if I could, but you wouldn't survive. So delicate, poor little It's-It inside your plastic wrapping. You wouldn't be happy anywhere else besides the freezer.

I wish I could enjoy your company wherever I am...

Missing you,
Mayz

P.S. Since I'm too lazy, and you can get the same update from my lovely sister, read her Sundance blog.

Heh! Embarrassing...

During the holidays, my sister asked me to distribute secret santa assignments for her friends. I, being the funny person I am, changed the identity on my email address to "The Holiday Armadilloooo!!!" (as Ross in Friends).

A few days ago, I got an email from a job head hunter. Important stuff.


From Dave **: Hi Andrea, I saw your resume online and was curious if you are in the... Jan 17 (6 days ago)

From The Holiday Armadillooooo!!!: Hi Dave, I am in the job market for a position starting in the Fall (followin... 11:18 am (3½ hours ago)

From Dave **: Would you click the link below and fill out the form so we can more easily up... 11:18 am (3½ hours ago)


OMG. My message was sent from "The Holiday Armadillooooo!!!"???? aaahhh!!!

WRITE YOUR COMPLAINTS

If any grave wrongs have happened to you by an airline (most popular of course) or other service, I encourage you to write about it. It just seems wrong to let some of these things go.

1st good Example. Three years ago, I took a delayed international Delta flight with layover in... Atlanta? I had to go through customs and recheck my bag. I asked the lady checking in my luggage which gate my next flight to Baltimore was. I had no time to check! I was full-out running. Not easy when you're groggy from sleeping on the plane. Turns out, it was the wrong gate. I checked the monitors and finally got to the right gate. Plane hadn't left yet. They gave my ticket away. Huh. Don't they know that my flight was delayed and we were rushing to the connecting flight? I wasn't the only sad victim. They can't give away my ticket like that when I've already landed in Atlanta. Anyway, I got on the next flight out, but apparently, my luggage didn't make it. It didn't even make it out to my hotel the next morning. I was in Baltimore for a wedding. I rushed out the morning of and bought a dress and shoes.

I had been wronged! I wrote a letter of complaint. They gave me money for my dress expenses and a voucher. :)

2nd good Example. I'm going to a Film Festival this year. You're given random registration times to buy the tix that you want. We had a couple time slots on the first day. Turns out, nasty people are buying movie tix only to turn around and resell them for hundreds of dollars (eBay). They never even plan to go to the festival in the first place. Festival rules explicitly state that the tix cannot be resold for profit. eBay won't take the items off their site. Nasty. We didn't get any of the movies that we wanted to see, and we had a lot of options just in case our first choices were sold out. A friend emailed a complaint about all these nasty people selling on eBay. The festival people were sympathetic and got tix for us. :)

3rd ? Example. My US Airways/America West flight got changed. My outbound flight changed by a matter of minutes. Fine. My 2nd leg return flight got cancelled, so they put me on the next flight, which created an excruciating 4 hour layover. Nasty airline. I called back requesting a co-chaired United flight. Their policy wouldn't allow it. Why? My America West flight is a co-chair. I could have booked the United co-chair flight from the very beginning through US Airways! Makes no sense. They cancelled my flight, they should give just compensation. I wasn't being ridiculous. I wrote a letter of complaint. I have yet to hear from them, but I feel better for having given them a piece of my mind! I was wronged! All I want is some monetary compensation or an adjustment in flight schedule. Pennies to them. Pennies.

NICE LONG HOLIDAY

I'm went on a nice holiday. It was nice to hang out at home, watch all episodes of Friday Night Lights, and got caught up on the Heroes episodes I missed. TV online is fabulous. What geniuses at NBC.

My family spent a few days in Vail. Here is a picture of my sister and where I should be if there was another person to take our picture.


Later that day, after a much-awaited lunch, I popped myself out of my ski bindings, only to take the binding brake along with me! Very upset. No tools or ski shop mid-mountain.

However, annoyance offset by clam chowder

and snowmobile ride to the bottom lodge.

Other news in holiday break:
Ran into old high school... acquaintance?, who we decided not to say hi to because we decided she wouldn't know who we were.
Saw old college... friend? who had scary crush on me. He decided not to say hi for whatever reason. Ran out of restaurant in a rush. He once told me that he thought that I disliked Celine Dion out of spite because he liked her.

NASHVILLE

What you would expect:


I tried on a pink hat and cowboy bots for fun. Lo and behold, there was a lady *ACTUALLY* trying them on in the background.

PROJECT RUNWAY

What a finale! This show really makes me want to be a fashion designer, and with my recent job rejections, well... an alternative career seems pretty attractive. Too bad I've never sewed anything before in my life, except for perhaps buttons. My mom hems my pants. :)

WARNING: IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE FINALE YET, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER.

I don't know about any of you, but I was really rooting for Uli. I just personally love her clothes and she really showed her range. True, Jeffrey's collection was cohesive and innovative, but I thought his designs were sort of boring overall. Pluse, Uli is cute, and Jeffrey is scary.

Hm... what am I going to do now on Wednesday nights? Job applications I suppose...

As lovely as Vancouver is, with its mountainous backdrop and surrounding waters, I found it eerily quiet for a city. Granted, it is a small city, but it was QUIET and Chinatown was QUIET and EMPTY. I think of Chinatown as stinky, loud, and crowded. Not the case here. I was excited to have some of the Vancouver Chinese food, but I was left underwhelmed.

What I did think was nice was that most of the waterfront property was taken up by tall skyscraper apartment buildings. Not business buildings. Apparently, though, they're all owned by the same Hong Kong tycoon who designed them all to be the same all glass buildings.

One of the highlights from the trip was the conference-organized dinner party at the aquarium. It was such a good time, bumping into textbook authors, world-renowned professors and the like. But the BEST part was playing with the harbor seal. It was adorable. Again, I expect harbor seals to be stinky, loud, and amongst many other harbor seals. But this guy was by himself, and was as cute as a button and so playful. He would follow my hand around, flip, and twirl. Adorable.

Look what my boyfriend sent me to wish me good luck. :)

Last sing in Ann Arbor with MJ. :(

One of the rare nights that we have together before everybody leaves... :(

What is it about home that makes you not want to leave? It will almost be four whole years since I've been away and living here in Michigan. I go home about 3 times a year, and it's only recently that I started feeling really emotional arriving and leaving the blessed bay area. I get so nostalgic when I see the 3 bridges on my way into SFO, and I'm just overwhelmed with sadness when I have to leave. Maybe it's because I'm on "vacation" and am not doing any work. Maybe it's because my family showers me with their time and all my favorite foods. Maybe it's all the surfing with old friends that lifts the spirit and gives me that feeling of being so free. There are so many memories that I have of being relaxed, completely at ease, and downright silly around the people that have known me since I was born or just a decade old.

I love you, Bay Area!
I love you, friends!
I love you, family!

TINY LITTLE TURDS

I started getting these tiny little turds in my desk drawers. I didn't even really know what they were at first, that is until they started popping up every single morning even after I had cleaned it up the day before. So there I had it. Turds. Kept returning. Had to call pest control -- what else was I supposed to do? At first I thought they were too small to belong to a mouse, but the pest experts assured me that they were... So they set up 3 of the snapping traps (inside boxes with two entrances) and a poisonous nibble underneath the sink. I was real nervous. Gross! Sure enough the next morning, I found my culprit. Eww!!! I was so grossed out about the idea before about catching the mouse, but I have this stupid morbid curiosity that got me looking at the mouse from both angles -- that's front and back, tail and whiskers. Poor guy. I threw him away. I hope I don't see any more turds/mice tomorrow when I go to lab.

More about grand adventure to Europe to come.
Gasp! Returned to the US to find Brangelina had their baby! The Paris papers said nothing about their visit back for a medical checkup... WHAAAT... they don't care? (not that I can read a French newspaper, but I can certainly identify American celebrities on magazine covers, yes I can)

2 PEOPLE, 2 STEAKS, A WHOLE LOT OF GORGING

Nadder bought two tuna steaks (sushi grade), so we made "some" sushi and "some" nigiri. Look, it's just a little bit.


Holy crap! How are two people supposed to finish so much food? We gave it an honest try, and ate all but one nigiri and maybe a dozen rolls. Stuffed out of our minds. High five, Nads.

Polls!

I've always been curious about cutting my hair short. By short, I mean above the shoulders, bordering on boy short. BUT, I've always been too chicken to do it. Well, now I have a recommendation for hairstylist and some encouragement, so I'm a little closer to ready. I'd like to take a poll on which style would be better. Okay, here's a reminder of what I look like, but I don't have any pictures of just me, so here's one that my sister took and doctored:



And here are some hairstyles that I like:






I was also thinking of an angled bob, with a real angle, but I can't seem to find a pic I like.

Also... any suggestions?