If I were an inventor....

If I were an inventor these are the things I would invent:

• A camera, that in addition to taking pictures can capture the smell of the event as well. You know, "they" say smell is a strong memory trigger so how cool to be able to smell the smells that were around during the picture. I call it...the Sniff Camera! Actually I just made that up, but it works.

• Shoes that change colors. I might be in the minority of girls that do not like having a ton of shoes but this would help with that problem. Sometimes I have a pair of shoes I really like that I would love to have in multiple colors but I am too cheap to buy more pairs. So what if you could change the colors of your shoes. For example, I could push a button on my green converse shoes that would turn them blue or black or pink! Wouldn't that be great?

• This is a simple one, but I wish they made cars that had big enough cup holders for my Nalgene! I especially use it when I travel and it ends up rolling all over the place and I end up dangerously taking my eyes off the road to catch it. Nalgene sized cup holders.

That's all I have for now. If you are an inventor, you have my permission to make these things as long as you promise that I can have one for free!

PS- Happy Spring time! Aren't those flowers beautiful!

Dream Come True

I experienced true West Texas culture today. I got to participate in something I have wanted to since the first time I lived in Abilene. I was a little nervous and prepared to be disgusted, so much so that I brought a book so I could go back to the car if needed, but I was quite enlightened. What did I do? I went to the Sweetwater Texas Rattlesnake Roundup! I know it sounds crazy, and it was! Check out the pictures as I tell the story.

Kelli and I in front of a snake pit

The SRR (Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup) is the world's largest rattlesnake roundup that happens every year. Do not take what I say as fact because I am going on observation, but this roundup happens not to torture poor, innocent snakes (like I thought it might be), but to help control the outrageous rattlesnake population in the area that can be very dangerous and deadly.

Full snake pit

They bring in hundreds, maybe even thousands of snakes each year that people caught. This takes place in a fair grounds type place and the main building consists of many booths selling tacky jewelry and rattlesnake souvenirs such as key chain rattles and snake heads in a jar. There are also stations where they are measuring and weighting the snakes, killing and skinning the snakes (I avoided this one), giving demonstrations to teach people about them, and milking them...yes milking.
Milking a rattlesnake has nothing to do with milk or utters, but instead it is getting the venom from their fangs to make antidotes for people who get bit. They put the fangs over this funnel and somehow the poison just comes on out! CRAZY!

Also at the SRR they fry up rattlesnake for people to eat. I, being someone who claims to try anything at least once, had to give it a bite and that was enough for me. It did not taste bad, it just did not taste like much and was kinda hard to eat with all the little bones. Gross I know, but I could not turn it down!

Here is the brave crew!

So what did I learn? It seemed to me that the point of the SRR was actually to round up rattlesnakes to help control the population. Even though they did kill the snakes I felt like they treated them with respect. I felt bad for the little guys but I tend to have a little too much compassion sometimes. Yes, they have made a show out of it all now, but what a cultural experience! It really is a pretty big deal out here in West Texas and while I never want to go again, I am glad I got to check it out.

Thanks to Donald for getting us all together and for these pictures that are his.

Stay tuned for spring break camping stories...

The Visitor

This tale requires a bit of a back story for you to get the full effect so here we go!

The other night after watching some movies we realized that our house was really hot, like 20 degrees hotter than outside. The air was blowing its little heart out with no results. We decided to turn the lights off in the house, open the front and back door, set up some fans and try and cool the house down before going to bed. It really made a huge difference and we could see the temperature dropping.

Through this process I poked my head out back and noticed that the air conditioner fan was not moving and it seemed like nothing was going on, yet air was blowing out of our vents. I double checked with my roomies to make sure I was not missing something, but I was right. Our AC is broken! Anyone not living in Texas might think that should not be something to worry about until May at the earliest but it has been very warm here for March.

Thankfully we are renters and can call the landlord on Monday to have him fix it. Even though it is no fun having no AC, we were quite relieved to have a reason that our house would not cool down.

We left the doors open and me and KN set out on the porch and were chatting while O was in bed and KB was on the couch.

Another thing you need to know about our house is that we have many many cats that live around us, so many that I am not sure where they all come from. Jokingly I call our house the whore house for cats because they are always under our house doing...stuff. So it is not unusual to hear cats, what I like to call, yelling at each other in anger or enjoyment.

When we heard the cats yelling I just figured it was around somewhere since we were sitting outside. The yelling got louder...and louder...and louder until I decided to walk to the back of the house and check it out. I walked past the bedroom nearest the back door and saw our cat Alley in the room all poofed up like she had been fighting. I stuck my head about back and looked around but saw no cats.

I walked into the bedroom to calm Alley down, and what did I see? A STRAY CAT IN OUR HOUSE!!! I was so surprised that I just laughed and called for backup. KB picked up Alley who was making not happy noises and was giving the other cat the death stare. The stray cat was hunkered down in a pile of papers and frames thinking "why did I have to be so curious!" With Alley out of the way I tried to wave the cat out but it looked seriously evil and I was too creeped out to touch it. I grabbed a near picture frame and from a distance pushed its booty a bit. Thankfully it jumped up and ran out of the room as I yelled "to the right!" It ran to the right and out the door! Whew! I am so glad it went the right direction.

I think we were all in a little shock and Alley would not stop sniffing the spot the intruder had been. It was quite the adventure! We all took a sigh of relief and laughed about it....then we shut the doors for the night. Ha!

On another note, KB and I are going camping for spring break. We are going to Devil's Den in the Ozarks in NW Arkansas. We are super excited! I will hopefully have lots of fun stories when we get back. Enjoy your break if you are having one!

Team Trip

Because some of our teammates live in Lubbock and the rest of us live in Abilene, we decided to take a little day trip and meet in the middle to hang out and catch up. We ate lunch at a great little country restaurant where we were sometimes the only people eating and they gave us free mints! Then we went and got some coffee at sat around at this little coffee shop on the town square.

This is the sign that was in the coffee shop. I thought it was so funny!

Sara got some love in her coffee!

We spent a while in the coffee shop just catching up, talking about God stuff and just having some good team time that we have all been missing. It was really good for us to be together and I know we cannot wait until it is permanent and we can all 7 hang out whenever we want, play silly games, eat yummy food and laugh a lot. I am ready for summer.

We are so cute!

110 days till our survey trip to Chile!!!!

Podcast Listening

I recently discovered Podcasts. I have no idea if I am ahead of or behind the curve but I really enjoy them. I listen to a couple of different ones but I have my favorites. The ones I listen to semi regularly include:

• The Moth Podcast- this is one is recorded live somewhere in NY and it is where people come and tell stories. They tell stories about crazy dates or strange, funny or sad things that happen to them.
• Discovery News- this is just different videos about new discoveries going on in the world and just informing on various sciencey type things like electric cars, cave formations, meteorites, and new animal species.
  
• President Obama's Weekly Address- just like it sounds. This actually began with Obama actually having a weekly video podcast before he got into office. Now I don't think he has time for that. This seems to be more general talks he gives that are turned into a podcast but it helps me stay somewhat informed which otherwise I would not be.
  
• 60 Second Earth- another sciencey one that are each only a min. long and are usually having something to do with being "green" like Smart Grid energy or carbon dioxide from cars.
• Coffee Break Spanish- I only recently discovered this one and I have only listened to it like twice, but it is what it sounds like. A 15 min Spanish lesson on varying topics. There is a teacher and a student and time to repeat. I am sure I sound pretty crazy to my roommates!
  
• Stuff You Missed in History Class- this is my second favorite to listen to. It is two women sharing information on history topics that were either not talked about in high school history or were glossed over. Things like The Great Wall of China, Blood Diamonds, Easter Island, and Did the Chinese Reach America before Columbus did?

Those are the major ones I listen to. When I say listen to, I mean that I listen when I can but I am typically behind. I have like 12 Coffee Breaks to listen to, 6 History class, etc. I really enjoy them though when I get the chance and they are great to listen to in the car on trips. I might start saving up for spring break!

My most favorite podcast ever is called Stuff You Should Know. It is put on by 2 guys, Chuck and Josh, who are really clever and funny and typically inform their audience about sometimes obscure, but always interesting things. They are usually things that I did not even know there was more to know about. Here are some of the ones I have listened to recently:

• How Albert Einstein's brain worked- this was the first one I ever listened to
  
• How comas work
• How flirting works- a very funny one
• How to survive a plane crash- really helpful, especially if you watch Lost and get a little paranoid about flying
• Why is it so hard to say "toy boat" three times fast
• How going over Niagara Falls works

The list goes on. Typically the podcast starts out with a silly intro that leads into the main discussion. They share stories from their lives that connect to the topic but also give scientific or historic facts to back them up. I really have learned a lot and I love hearing what they have to say.

I know you are thinking, aren't you in grad school? How do you have time for this? Well I do take breaks sometimes, but I like to listen to these while I do the dishes or pick up my room or get ready in the morning. It gives me something entertaining and yet is somewhat educational. I love it!

Wind is not our friend

The wind in Abilene, oh how it blows
It makes me shiver from my head to my toes.
The gusts keep coming, they never stop.
But when they do, I usually fall plop.

It comes from all directions, north south east west
Trust me, this is true, I do not jest!
When I ride my bike into this force
I hope to not fall, dead like a horse.

Oh when will you stop, wind that does not end
Bring a little rain, and you will be our friend.
But you keep on blowing, ruining our days
Who needs to fix their hair anyways?

Hear my cries of pain as you blow down my house
Which is worse, you or the mouse?
Please leave soon, blower of dust
Or inside I’ll stay until August!

I Made an Apple Pie

I am very proud of my accomplishment. I think I am a fairly good baker, but tend to stick to my regulars. I don't mind sticking to regulars because I really love the cookies I make, but sometimes it is fun to mix it up a bit.

This past weekend I had lots of leftover apples from a presentation where we had to provide a cultural snack. We used the apples to dip in the Manjar, otherwise known as Dulce de Leche. It was delicious treat! But as usual when estimating food for a group, we over estimated and I could not stand to throw the apples away. They were red delicious apples, which I don't particularly like, or I would have just eaten them. So what do you do with a bunch of apples? Make apple pie!

I decided to go completely from scratch and see how it went. I got the pie recipe for the old school Better Home and Gardens red and white checked cook book. I would have used the pie crust from there but I did not really understand the instructions so I found a crust recipe online and went from there.

I made the crust and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours, partially because it was very sticky and partially because I had other things to do. Then I toiled over the apples, pealing them and cutting and pealing the few whole ones I had at home. In the process of using knives too sharp for my cutting abilities I sliced my thumb. I think it is getting better but for a while I was not sure if it would stop bleeding. I don't think any blood got in the pie...:)

I will way my pie turned out well and yummy but there are a few things I will do different next time and I will make those comments as I go along. So I rolled out the dough on the table and tried to get it as even as possible and large enough for the pie pan. It was a little small but I made it work. I really want to perfect my crust edge crimping! You know what I really want? A marble rolling pin! Have you ever seen those? The make rolling things so easy. You hardly have to push. That would be great!

Here you can see me with the dough fitted nicely in the pan

Then the apple mixture came. I did not use the type of apples the recipe called for but I put lemon juice on them to help them sour a bit. They tasted fine. I added what I needed and it soaked well into the apples. I put them in the dough, plopped some butter on top and crisscrossed dough strips on top. This was fun but next time I will make them thinner and not piled so high because they were close to burning!

Then I stuck it in the oven. As you can see I even put foil around the edge to keep it from burning. That technique worked well! I put it in the oven at 400 degrees. The recipe said for 50 min but I checked it at 40 and the top was browning so I pulled it out. I think it was fine timing though because everything seemed done enough. Dough was done and apples were slightly crisp!


The pie turned out great and I cannot wait to try it again to perfect it. A few things I will try are maybe an apple less because they were piled super high as well. I wonder if when the recipe book was written apples were smaller or maybe just the type of apples it called for, Granny Smith, are smaller. I also will probably add a little more flour to the apple mixture because it was super juicy! After I cut my first piece it looked like the pie was sitting in a soup. I poured a little out. This could probably be helped with a little more flour and a little less apple.

Finished product!

One question I have for you bakers out there is how much of a difference does it make if you don't peel the apples. That is the hard, long, dangerous part of the process and if it could be skipped I might make apple pies more often. I felt so Suzy Homemaker-ish! Is it just a texture difference or does it really change the taste? Maybe I will experiment with other pies. I really enjoyed making the crust! Any requests? :)