Garden Harvest

This weekend I ate something out of my garden for the first time: a carrot. It was pretty small but very tasty! If anyone in Davis likes Roma tomatoes let me know b/c I will have tons in a week or two and Derrick and I aren't big fans. I'm not actually sure why I planted them- I guess I wasn't completely convinced that they would grow and produce a harvest.

The Invisable Enemy

About a week ago I started getting these red itchy bites under my sports bra and other warm undesirable areas. This also coincided with the time I started clearing the back part of my garden. So I went out there looking for the culprit but the only thing I could find was lots of spiders and ants. I figured I would probably notice if I had spiders crawling all over me so it must be ants. But then I noticed that new bites would show up even without going into my garden. hm...
Derrick suggested that maybe it was chiggers and I do believe he is right. According to my internet research, they are basically invisible- explaining why I never saw anything crawling on me, inhabit overgrown grass, weeds, etc but the larvaa hop on animal hosts (ie, me), dissolve some of my cells with enzyme and have a feast until they are big enough to survive on plants. yay!
So in conclusion, I have a new least-favorite-garden-inhabitant: chiggers!!

Homesickness and update

This is another picture of Alcatraz- its so pretty to have been a maximum security prison!
Anyway, my parents have been planning their visit to come see us! I think they are very stressed about it - just trying to figure out when to what. I am very excited! Its been since Christmas since I've seen them. I have been getting especially homesick lately. Summer is the time when everyone gets together at my parents and we sit on the back porch, grill fish, drink wine .. and I miss it! Oh, and the beach. Point Reyes somewhat filled that void but its still not the same as Wrightsville.
So enough reminiscing, I have a lot of work to do this summer. I have some bactch reactor experiments to run, but before I do that I have to do a couple preliminary experiments. Should definitely take the whole summer if not longer. I am learning so much- my brain feels like it is on overload, but I am enjoying it a lot. Yesterday I sat in on a (2-hour) meeting about the Chevron proposal. It was slightly disorganized but I got to see a part of how the whole applying for $$ works; somewhat overwhelming.
Garden News: I have sooo many green tomatoes and lots of little peppers. AND baby corn! I'm so excited! In few weeks I think I will be overwhelmed with vegetables! I am planning to make a bunch of spaghetti sauce. And freeze the peppers. And make lots and lots of popcorn! :)

Vacation

We survived our vacation :) We spent the first weekend with Emily and Mark. Here we are at the Egyptian museum in San Jose- bathed as usual.Here we are at Alcatraz, our last stop, sunburned and greasy :) I think we actually look happier in this one ;)
In between we spent a night at Big Basin Redwoods SP, 2 nights at Point Reyes National Seashore and 1 night at Angel Island SP. I will put up the rest of the pictures on my google pics website. Overall it was a really fun but exhausting trip- lots of hiking and exploring!

Happy Birthday to me!

Here is a picture of my birthday present from Derrick. Its a new (for us) dining set! No more eating at the coffee table for us! We found it on the Facebook Marketplace. The girl was asking $80 but Derrick talked her down t0 $55. My husband the bargainer :) So anyway, we got a nice table for cheap and I am excited!

Wild Turkeys!

I found these roaming to the community garden last week! I also found tomatoes!! I have 2! I keep meaning to bring my camera out but thus far have not remembered. You will just have to take my word for it.
Man its so freakin hot here!! Its still not as miserable as the humidity in NC but going outside during the day is like stepping into an oven. This week its been up into the 100s several days. Yesterday we had a power outage on campus b/c of the AC usage!
I start real work on some research next week! And then the next week is vacation!! wo hoo! We are going out to the bay area for some camping and hiking! And to tour alcatraz. yay!
The End.

Another quarter of classes complete..

One more to go! I'm not really sure what to do with myself.. a whole summer before me .. :)
I went to the dentist this morning - 3 new cavities!! I never get cavaties- see what grad school has done to me ;)
My cucumber plant has a flower! and I have tomatoes - they are only about 1cm diameter but they are a start and a sign of hope :)
Hm.. well, thats about it! Life is gloriously boring!

Garden Update

This weekend wasn't really a weekend. I worked all day Saturday but took most of Sunday off. I went out to take some pictures of my garden and compared to a few months ago. As shown to the left- my tomatoes have come a long way! Still no fruit but lots and lots of flowers!

Here is my sunflower! It finally bloomed! If you look closely at the top left there is a cucumber beetle that I caught accidentally. I hope I squished him later! I have also discovered earwigs that I think are eating some of the leaves of my plants. They are flat little icky crawly things. I'm not sure how to get rid of them so hopefully they won't do too much damage..

Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day weekend.. well, Saturday, we went to Muir Woods! There are Redwoods there and lots of hiking trails. Overall a good trip. This picture is hilarious. It looks like I'm picking a wedgie and trying to look inconspicuous but I'm really trying to hide the bag of trail mix I'm holding while getting distracted by a couple walking by.
Here is Derrick being eaten by a Redwood!..
So anyway, about 2 more weeks of classes, 7 things remaining on my to-do list for the quarter and I am done! I always say that like I'm really done when in reality it just starts all over again, but you gotta have short term goals or everything will get overwhelming.

Garden Update: There are flowers on my tomato bushes!! flowers = future tomatoes!! Last week I had a slight emergency - cucumber beetles were eating up my cucumbers, beans and sunflowers. It was kinda depressing b/c I didn't have time to deal with it until Friday and everytime I came to water there was more and more damage. But I got some row covers on everything Friday morning and things seem to be recovering. My salad greens seem to especially like the row cover. They have been growing like crazy. I tried to eat some tonight but they were way bitter. I think I need to pick younger leaves or something. Maybe they get to hot under the cover..?

PhD

Oh man, I found this really funny comic strip. Its called Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD) - about graduate student life. Here is one of my favorites.

And here is a cool picture (I think its cool at least):

Today I had a soil microbiology test and I think I did well! I definitely should have taken this class before I took the micro 200 class last quarter. I got all the details in 200 and had know idea what they really meant. Now I am getting the big picture and putting all the details together- lots of 'oohh thats what that is' moments.

It saddens me to think that everyone else (non-CA) is already done with classes and I am only 1/2 way through the quarter! booo!

Time for lab cleaning!

Metric Century

This past weekend was the Wine Country Century Bike ride! Derrick and I left for Santa Rosa Friday evening, checked in for the ride and arrived at our campground around sun down. We set up our tent real quick, ate dinner and then went to sleep. We are old and boring ;). And we also had a 62 mile bike ride in the morning.
We overslept but still managed to get to the ride on time. It was absolutely beautiful. Mountains and vineyards, woods, cool old bridges...
The ride wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. My legs held up surprisingly well. My neck and my butt were definitely in the most pain at the end of the ride. At around 9 miles from the end there is a huge hill. Well, it seemed huge at that point. You go up and see a curve so you think - maybe its over at the curve! Nope. I got around the curve and there was just more hill :) But I made it all the way up without stopping or dying! The rest stops were my favorite part :) There was fruit and cookies and chocolate and sandwiches, water and gatorade - very well supported.

On a deeper note, I'm so lonely! I am having such a hard time making friends out here on another planet (as my mom calls it ;) ). I have lab people but they are either 1-male 2-married 3- both 4-already have there established set of friends. Not that I have anything against being friends with male married people but I live with a male married person and he is plenty for me thanks :) I am trying to get Derrick convinced on going to a young couples sunday school class but he is not convinced yet. Maybe I should just start asking random people "will you be my friend?" ;) So anyway, for you praying people out there, pray that I will find some female, christian friends! please :)

I love my job..

But I still love Fri-day! Yay! This week was crazy busy- I started some work in the lab! I have been working with a guy at the Genome Center extracting DNA from the sludge in the reactors. Very cool. My classes were not first priority this week but I managed to get everything done.
I took the afternoon off and walked around taking pictures! I even got out my SLR - I forgot how fun it is. I still like the instantaneousness of digital though - I took this picture like an hour ago and here I am already sharing it with you! The picture, by the way, is the path where I like to go run. Its flat and shady not to mention a view of the mountains and lots and lots of farmland. I took some pictures of my garden. I will post them on my google picture album thingy. There was a dead rabbit out there last weekend. I think a hawk or something got him and dropped him there just for me :P Derrick helped me bury him nearby.
This week it got hot finally! Up into the 80s. I guess it feels less hot without the humidity- still pretty darn hot though ;) Especially compared to the 60s that it has been lately.
Oh man! This morning in class the guy in front of me passed out! He came to in a minute or so - Turns out he hadn't slept last night so that probably had something to do with it. Scared me though!
Ok, thats all! Have a good weekend!

Picnic Day!

At first I was a little suspicious of picnic day- what exactly is it? Is there an actual picnic? Having experienced picnic day I am still unsure of the answers to these questions but it was still fun! As far as I can tell, its like an all campus open house/celebration. There is a parade and all (most?) of the departments have exhibits open with fun things to do/see. For example, I volunteered at the biotech exhibit and we had stations for cheese making, DNA extraction from strawberries and indigo/jeans enzyme. The plant science department gave out free plants and fruit samples which was probably my favorite part. There is also the 'Doxie derby' which is dachshund racing. They have a little gate and everything. Its pretty hilarious- some of the dogs understand what they are supposed to do but others just come out of the box and wander around :) It was pouring rain for most of the day but there were still tons of people out. This tells me one of two things: picnic day is a really big deal (worth being soaking wet) or that people in Davis are part duck. I'm leaning towards the former.

This picture is from the parade (taken by Rob Williams of the BAE dept). The guy inside the carriage is Bryan Jenkins - faculty in the department as well as head of the California Biomass Collaborative. He was a parade marshal (whatever that is?). Note the pouring rain..

So I got some free tomato and pepper plants! This is good since most of the ones I planted have been ransacked by slugs. I hate slugs. They are icky and they eat my plants. Anyway, I put out eggshells around my newly planted plants and so far no slug damage...

My lab group!

Back (l-r): Xiguang (Masters student), Dr. Lin (visiting scholar from China), Yi (PhD student), Jinming (visiting scholar from China), Baoning (visiting grad student from China), Harrison (post doc)
Front (l-r): Emma (Masters student from horticulture), Rowena (Phd student), Josh (Phd student), Dr. Zhang (the big cheese), Me, Dr. Oh (visiting scholar from Korea), Kim (Dr. Oh's grad student)

Yay!

Happy Easter!!

For Easter weekend we went to visit Emily and Mark in Palo Alto! It was fun and really great to see them. It was kinda weird not to go to church though. Definitely my least 'spiritual' Easter in terms of actions but I think that made me focus more on connecting to the Easter message personally. . . if that makes any sense.
For our visit, we left early Saturday morning and went to the Monterey Bay aquarium. It was definitely the coolest aquarium I've ever been too (out of the total 2 aquariums..). My favorite was the jellyfish exhibit. They had the lighting just right so that they looked really cool. The picture to the left is on the deck of the aquarium. You could look out and see seals and otters! Sunday we went down to SF to Golden Gate Park. It was cool- I expected it to be very open but it was woodsy. There are lots of eucalyptus trees that smell funny. To me they smelled like BO but that might be because Derrick has evergreen scented deodorant ;) After the park we went out for Chinese- after driving around and around for 20 minutes looking for a place to park. If I ever move to SF I am biking everywhere!!

Spring Break? Whats that?

Well, our stuff is (mostly) unpacked, the garden is planted and classes have started already. I will try to post pictures soon..
I am only taking 2 classes this quarter: soil microbiology (seems interesting) and design and analysis of experiments (seems boring, but required :P).
Today is César Chávez day which means that we have no classes. I had to look up who César Chávez is- he was farm laborer rights activist, kinda like MLK except for farm workers I guess. He is pictured to the left compliments of Wikipedia.

You can stick a fork in me-

Cause I'm Done! D-O-N-E Done with a capital D!

Whoo!

Fire!

This is reason number 12949303274628 why I am happy to be done with the train!! Thursday afternoon about 10 minutes after our train went through, the track/bridge caught fire. They suspect arson. When people told me I thought it just a minor thing but looking at the pictures and reading the article I see that it is a big deal! The bridge over the American River could have collapsed. Its going to cost millions of dollars to fix since they have to rebuild the trestles and UP is losing tons of money since they have to reroute everything up to Marysville. Amtrak is busing riders to Sac where they can catch the train westward. A minor inconvenience compared to what would have happened if the fire had been 10 minutes earlier!

The homestretch

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! All I have left is a take home exam, which is already half finished, and two papers to put the finishing touches on. Then I get to start packing and cleaning! I'm not sure how much better that is than school but at least its something that doesn't involve sitting in front of the computer all day.
Grad students at UC Davis are much more dedicated than the ones I knew at NCSU, including myself :) They stay up late all the time and try to work as hard as they can on every possible thing. Maybe I am just jealous... or maybe its just because they are boys ;)
This picture is a very cute puppy that I happened across on the internet. Don't worry I am not getting a dog. I barely have time to take care of myself much less a dog- but boy is he cute!! He would probably eat our shoes and pee everywhere though. I'll just keep telling myself that...
Tomorrow is the last day that I have to ride the train!! I think I will miss it a little bit. We had a St Pattys day party on Thursday with corn beef tacos! And I inducted as an official CC Rider- just in time to leave. Oh well, at least I got a cool pin :) Well, thats all the interesting stuff I have to report.. Goodnight!

I have a dilemma

Well, maybe 2. First I don't how to spell dillemma? And also I have an exam at 8am tomorrow. I have 2 options for getting to campus: Train or car. Train is usually on time but has been known to be late on the days that I actually need to be on campus on time. Car is usually reliable but have some slight mechanical issues which could potentially backfire. If the train is late or gets cancelled I will most likely have a ride to Davis via someone else. But if the car breaks down I am pretty much going to miss my whole exam trying to deal with it. Hmm.. sounds like the train may be the best choice.
Or maybe the car would be better because then I have a better chance of getting out this dreaded microbiology exam... bleeeach!

Today is Tuesday

That means that there are 4 more days until the quarter is essentially over!! That also means that I have four days to finish 2 papers, 2 presentations and a final exam. The only thing I am really worried about is the microbiology exam. I have had a hard time learning everything for each test so the idea of having to stuff 3 tests worth of stuff into my brain at once makes me slightly anxious.

The fact that the timing belt on the car is cracked also makes me slightly anxious. I don't have time to deal with it until next week so hopefully it will hold on until then!

My garden is almost ready for planting! I finished clearing out the area this weekend. Things left to do include: fixing/finishing the fence, creating raised beds and working in the mulch/compost. My cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers are almost ready for planting. I started some greens, herbs and marigolds this weekend so hopefully they will be ready in a couple weeks too.

This morning on the train I was thinking about the differences between NC and CA and the main one I thought about is the sky. The sky out here seems so much bigger. You look out and its like you can see forever. Almost every sunrise and sunset that I have seem is breathtaking. This is probably because of terrain. I grew up at the beach and its pretty flat but but nothing like here- I can look east or west from the valley and see flat nothingness, flat nothingness -- MOUNTAINS! That is when there isn't a smoggy haze. .
I was also thinking about how in 2 weeks I will never have to ride the train again. All I will have to do is get out of bed and ride my bike 5 minutes! Thats 1 hr and 15 minutes less of a commute than I have now :)

Panic Attack!

Tuesday afternoon I went by our soon-to-be new apartment office to pick up applications. The lady that I had been working with wasn't there so I just asked the girl who was there for an application. They asked me about which apartment, so I told them, and then she said that she thought that one had been rented out that afternoon. I can feel the panic and rage start to surge through my body... she says doesn't really know anything more and the usual lady will call me in the morning. The morning?!? Thats feels like 3 years from now!!
So I call Derrick and he starts freaking out too. This was the day that I overslept so I had the whole drive home to think over the situation. I tried to keep calm and tell myself that if it didn't work out, we would find somewhere else. That would work for about 30 seconds and then I would get mad again. Needless to say it was a long night for Derrick and I...
The next morning I get to school around 8am as usual but the office doesn't open until 9:30 so I wait around until about 9:45. I'm about to call when an email pops into my inbox. Its from the apartment lady. She tells me that the apartment HAS been rented out but only until March 21st. So we can move in on March 23rd- which is actually better since our current lease doesn't end until the 31st. Turns out that there is a visiting scholar who needed a place for about a month so they gave it to them for the month. whew! Panic attack for nothing!!
On a different note, I got a 68.5 on my microbiology test. That seems discouraging at first but the average was 60 and the highest grade was 73 or something like that. So I was pretty excited about my 68 :)

Long Weekend!

Hurray for presidents day- a much needed day to catch up on things! Here are some pictures- the top ones are our new apartment!! in Davis!! that we move into in less than a month!! Needless to say I am excited. Last week the train just didn't come two mornings and then this morning I overslept and missed it completely so I had to drive. I am feeling very done with the train. I am counting down until March 15.
The bottom left are the flowers Derrick got me from Valentines :) And the bottom right are my sprouting seeds! The really tall ones are cucumber and the smaller ones are tomatoes. I also have peppers but they haven't sprouted yet.
This weekend we went skiing with Emily and Mark. It was fun! Saturday we went cross country skiing at Royal Gorge- it was fun but a lot like work :) Sunday we went downhill skiing at Sugar Bowl. I went down some intermediate slopes.. with the bruises to prove it :P Overall a very fun but exhausting weekend. Luckily I had yesterday off.
My computer is fixed, finally! yay! I had two tests on Friday- Microbiology and biotech. The MB one was really hard- pretty sure I made up answers for at least 2 questions. The biotech wasn't bad.. or maybe I was just too tired to care. We will find out later in the week! Well, time to get back to the real world!

Sleepy Time!

Aye aye aye! That is all I have to say about that.
Announcements!
1. My computer has been sent off to Dell to get fixed. The internet card was bad (shock!?)!
2. Derrick will be home in about an hour :)
3. I left my keys in Davis Wenesday night.. I like to keep things interesting..
4. I am exhausted! So much work and things to keep up with in my brain!
5. Yay for the weekend!!

Welcome to the Quarter of Death!

I am taking 4 classes this quarter. I am not dead yet but it is quite probable that I will be before its over ;) Three of the four have big projects so right now I'm not completely drowning but when everything starts coming due I think I will be going crazy.
Despite my crazy class schedule I had time today to go work at the garden for the afternoon! We had a general 'workday' to earn some hours (In order to not lose your deposit on your garden plot you have to work a certain number of community hours) and then I worked a little in my own garden. My attempt at a winter crop failed miserably. I grew a half eaten cabbage, rosemary- which I'm not sure actually grew so much as didn't die, and lots and lots of grass!! However I was inspired today by other gardeners so I made a first attempt at battling the grass (pulled up and mulched over it). I am considering planting an apple tree. We are allowed to plant trees, with permission/dissusion with the garden director, and I don't think we have an apple tree yet.
This evening I am reinstalling windows (again) trying to fix my internet card driver issues. Hopefully this will work. It has been so incredibly frustrating calling Dell and having them tell me to do the same things I've already done 500 times but I think this might actually work. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Yay!!

We finally got our new dresser! Its so pretty! and nice to have a place to put our clothes besides on the floor ;) This weekend has been very productive! Yesterday I cleaned and cleaned and made a yummy dinner (citrus and black pepper chicken) and sugar cookies! I got some cookie cutters from Williams-Sonoma where you make the cookies and then put them together to make 3-D trees, snowman, sled and reindeer! You are supposed to use a gingerbread cookie recipe but I decided to try it with the sugar cookies. It didn't work- they swell so much that they don't fit together right. Oh well! They are still yummy!
I went for a bike ride this morning. It was so nice to ride my road bike! Its so much faster than my commuter bike. It was soo cold out - I had snot everywhere!! ;) Today I have a lot of reading to do .. I also need to clean the bathroom- my least favorite housecleaning activity.
Well happy weekend everyone!

Merry Christmas!!

And a Happy New Year!! We had a great trip to NC. We got to Raleigh around 7pm on the 19th. Emily graduated all day on Wednesday. I am so proud of her! She has a job and everything! I also went to dinner with Virginia, Joanna and Gina at Mama Fus Wed. night and hung out with Katie Friday afternoon. It was so good to see everyone!!
Friday night I got our rental car and drove to Asheboro where Derrick had been all week. We hung out with Derricks family until Christmas morning. We also went to see The Pursuit of Happyness. It was really good- inspiring and depressing at the same time!
Christmas morning we headed to Wilmington and met my parents at the big family thing at my great aunts. That was nice- lots of family! Friday afternoon was my dads family thing and Saturday was Emily's graduation/engagement party. In between Christmas and the parties we ate, slept and geocached! My dad has a GPS thing for his boat so we used it to geocache and now we are totally addicted to it.. except that we don't have a GPS thingy... My dad gave us an old on to borrow but we may try to just ghetto it and look it up in googlemaps and guess ;)
New Years Eve we celebrated our 3rd(!!) anniversary by going to Bluewater for some expensively delicious seafood! After that my mom coerced us into going to some family friends to visit. We didn't really feel like going, but it ended up being pretty fun.
New Years Day we drove back to Raleigh and I headed back to CA. The flight was long.. the plane stopped in Chicago but since I was going through to Sac on the same plane they wouldn't let me get off. Between Chicago and Sac we had to stop in Salt Lake City because a little girl was having seizures! It was kinda scary and annoying at the same time. By the time we got to Sacramento I had been on the same plane for about 8.5 hours and was very antsy! ;) I finally made it back to the apt around 4:30. THE END!