I'm Alive

For all of you who thought that I may have perhaps met my ultimate demise sometime at the beginning of last month, when I last posted a blog, the rumors are all untrue! That's just a joke...no one thinks I'm dead, but some may be wondering what I've been up to, or at least I'd like to flatter myself into thinking so anyway!

Here is a brief update of some stuff I've been up to.

1. SCHOOL...that's right school, but I took my last final for the school year last Tuesday, and am not too sad about not attending classes for the entire summer. It was a tough quarter, partially due to the fact that the weather was good, and I would have rather been outside on the weekends, and partially due to the fact that I was burned out on Biochemistry...only two more classes of Biochemistry to go! I will not be starting up with actual classes again until next year, but that's not a problem it will be a much lighter load.

2. JOINING A LAB. For those of you who don't know how this graduate program works, basically the first year of school you we are in the market for a lab to join. We have a list of 160 scientists who we then have to search through and determine whether or not we'd be interested in the research that they do. And then find three to do rotations in (that actually have the money to take a grad student on for the remainder of their graduate career). This may sound relatively simple...but I can assure you is not and was in fact probably one of the most stressful parts of this last quarter for me. The news is is that I did join a lab. I will be in a lab that focuses primarily on Liver and Pancreatic fibrosis.

3. Other activities: I will now post some pictures of some of the stuff I have been doing this past month and a half...

Moroni will probably kill me for posting this picture because we look terrible, but we've been biking some...in this particular ride we got caught in a rain storm.
Moroni bought a house and closed in the beginning of may...but was a little dismayed to find that new homes do not come equipped with blinds (poor guy). The toughest challence was the door. It is metal, number one, and we didn't really want to drill into it in order to put up blinds. Instead I created blinds out and sewed magnets inside. When you want to cover the window it can be pulled down. I was pretty proud of my domestic skills on this one, and Moroni also liked it (probably because I did not make it out of floral material...I'd say green is a pretty manly color).

Hiking and Metro parks....I'm learning Ohio style wilderness adventures everyday. It's not the Cascades or Utah...but it does have it's own gems. Around Columbus and beyond they have what are called "metro parks", which I would assume, as an outsider, to be merely another park with a swing set and slide. But this is not the case. You can actually hike in these places! And they are not just cement trails either...I mean it's a little more urban but it's still outdoors, so I'll take what I can get. The park I'm posting below is called Clear Creek Metro Park Here is great picture that Moroni actually posed for. This is Moroni and our friend Tom and an old barn we found.

The Olenatangy Indian Caverns
This Saturday we went to these caves...which were pretty cool...or at least cool in the sense that they felt really good--54 degrees, as opposed to the 94 degrees it was outside with 75% humidity. They weren't bad, just I'm glad that we had a two-for-one coupon. They did tell us, which we didn't see, that there was a lake below us and cave fish...now that would have been worth the full price. Moroni kind of reminded me of a grandpa in this pictureHere is some more fun we found at the caves. I want everyone to know I actually picked the snake up first, but Moroni was the one who tamed it. They also had a small petting zoo...very small...four animals...here is Moroni getting up close and personal with another.......................... donkey
So adios for now. I will hopefully be keeping up on the blog a little better this summer, since I will for sure have more time on my hands. And hopefully will have some good adventures to share over the next few weeks. My grandpa Al may be coming out in the middle of June for a week and then Moroni and I will be heading for Washington the last week in June.