Working Weekend

After a 6 week (!!) hiatus, my instrument is back up and running smoothly.  The recirculating chiller broke after Picnic Day and after trying to repair it myself, watching my professor break it, and then having Dave try to fix that, I finally had to send it back to PA for repair.  Now that the whole instrument cluster is working again, it means I am chained to it during all possible working hours.  Except that I will allow myself one weekend day at home doing normal "life" stuff: shopping, visiting family, cleaning, hanging out with the doggies/garden/chickens, cooking, etc. (read: all the stuff I'd rather be doing on weekends).

So this past weekend, Saturday was my day off.  We went to Livermore to visit with my parents and so my mom and I could attend Tina's baby shower.

The shower was right up my alley: everything was scientist themed!  The decorations, invitations, and one of the games used the periodic table of elements.  I think my favorite part was when the hostesses put ice cubes into our drinks, which each contained a plastic baby: you had to yell, "my water broke!" when the cube melted and released the baby into the beverage.  I can't wait until Baby Boy Porter comes along in August!!!  Everyone knows that while I love all babies, I especially love the ones that are males, born in August, and have nerdy parents who love tinkering/home improvement/cooking/dogs/gardening/eating.

I left Eddie at home with my dad and his dad...they apparently had a fantastic time working on stuff in the workshop, going on wheelbarrow rides, climbing dirt piles, etc.

The original plan was for the guys to finish building the art easel my dad
made for the little guy.  But I guess they got side tracked with regular old
"hammering and nailing" (or doweling, I guess) in the workshop instead.
My dad is quite impressed with Eddie's hammering skills.  He's going to build him a
cobbler's bench next! 

My mom and I brought Subway sandwiches back to the house for dinner and later we had pie and ice cream with Gayla.

This was the best pie I've ever made: peach, strawberry, ollalieberry. Holy jeez it was scrumptious.
3 cups of fruit, 2/3 cup sugar, 1/4 cup flour, and a touch of cinnamon/nutmeg/salt for the filling.

That night back Davis a giant tree fell down in the park.  Lots of noise, no fans, and high nighttime temperatures meant I didn't sleep much at all.  So Sunday morning I sneaked out the house to go to work before anyone else woke up.  I chugged along at work until lunchtime, when the fellas picked me up so we could go to Home Depot and Costco.  My instrument requires a 1.5 hour reverse flush/cool-down period, which is nice on the weekends because it gives me time to hang out with the guys a little.

I was deposited back at the lab to do another sample while Eddie napped in the car with Dave.  After the 34 minute instrument time, I set it up for reverse flushing/cooling and we went to the pool for an hour.  Then we came back to the lab to do one last sample.  Dave rode my bike home in order to get dinner started while Eddie and I waited around until the sample was done.  It was set up to reverse flush again...but this time my friend, Garrett, said he'd shut off the gas for me since he was working late (I texted him after 1.5 hours to remind him).

While we were at the pool/lab, Eddie's teacher, Amanda, dropped off a hive of
bees into our garden.  She and her boyfriend, Tim, are moving into an apartment this
summer and won't be able to keep their bees (obviously).
We're thrilled to host more ladies in the garden: we already have 7 hens, what's another 10,000 gals?

Dinner was delicious grilled chicken sliders made on Costco's deeeeeeeeeeeeelicious pretzel rolls (Genius!  I'm definitely going to make my own).  After Eddie was in bed and Dave had driven away (tear), I got busy doing all the ironing and laundry folding I'd neglected the rest of the weekend--while watching America's Got Talent, of course.