"Tuck-son Arizony"

I spent Memorial Day in good 'ol Tucson Arizona, visiting my sister Keri. First on my list was a stop at the Sonic for a coconut cream pie shake. Delish.

Keri goes to the University of Arizona. On DAY 1 we were driving down the street and she pointed, "That is my school." I looked and saw the sign "University of Arizona" and there behind the sign was Taco Bell. "What are you learning? How to roll a burrito?" I asked. (Actually, that could come in handy.)

The Arizona Sonora Desert Museum is located in Tucson, so we spent an afternoon wandering through the cacti filled desert. We barely made it out alive with the man-eating jackrabbit, killer cacti, coyotes, rattle snakes and hairy pig-like Javelina running around there. We learned a few life lessons out there wondering through the desert. 1-Sunblock is a good idea. 2-Drinking fountains in the middle of the desert do not really exist (for you Gary Larson fans) and the water doesn't get cold if they do exist, so bring water with you everywhere you go. 3-Don't bend over to tie your shoe in the desert. This is Keri bending over a little too close to the cacti. Yikes!

On Tuesday we spend our day in Mesa, AZ. We were able to go to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Mesa Arizona Temple. It was built in 1927 and resembles an ancient temple, very different from the fairy-tale-castle-like La Jolla Temple, but it was beautiful nonetheless. My Grandparents were married there.

One of the best things we did was to meet up with the Hamiltons. They are a family that lived 2 houses down the street from us from the time I was in preschool through 8th grade, at which time they moved to Arizona. They are awesome people! I miss them tons! They make up many of my childhood memories. We met up with Pat, Victoria, Richard, and his daughter Ryan. We went to lunch. Food flinging occurred. Good times. Good memories.

I hate to break it to any Diamond Back fans out there, but they really stunk it up on Tuesday night. Keri and I went to Chase Field and watched the Giants pummel the D-backs. We had a great time anyway. It is a fun stadium - a lot to look at and nice grass too. I must confess that the men selling concessions at Chase Field are a billion times better than those at Petco Park. They are loud, clear, and catchy. "Lemonade! Get your Lemonade! Just like your Grandma made!" Their voices fluctuate too! "Cold BeeEER!" (The guy at Yankee Stadium trying to sell Haagen Dazs by yelling "Dazs Haagen! Dazs Haagen!" comes in second as my favorite concessions seller.)

I had a lovely time in Arizona except for the small fact that I seemed to be allergic to the place. My nose produced more liquid than Tucson sees in a year. Gross. But true.

Roughing It Lady's Style

Friday I left work a tad early...I high-tailed it to buy ice, home to pack my car, and then to the church to meet The Girls to carpool to Lake Jennings. It was the long awaited Relief Society Campout!

My Relief Society was in charge of the food for the event and two of my counselors went to Costco with me the night before (where we played a series of "The Price is Right" games with the items we bought. Jen won the showcase showdown - she was off by $1.09!) I was picky about the dates on the food we bought - buying muffins that were fresher for one more day than others and picking out fruit that was fresh yet ripe looking. It was quite the ordeal.
I left those girls and went to Vons and then to Longs in search of some sticks/skewers/coat hangers to cook the hot dogs with. I ended up with a metal contraption that encloses and holds onto 8 dogs and has a handle.
It sounds great in theory and even looks fun to use, but in no time we figured out that the handle just isn't long enough! The fire was hot, as fire usually is, and the smoke was stinging our eyes as we tried to hold the dogs over the inferno. (And yes, it was blazing.) Only the dog on the furthest end warmed up. We ended up using the wire rack on the fire pit and some tin foil, but the handle began to smoke, so we chucked the confounded contraption altogether. Sad.
The rest of the meal went fine - chili cooked in a dutch oven and chips and veggies.
After a series of mini classes on fire-starting (one even done with a bow and stick/stone), tent building, and fancy campfire desserts (peach cobbler and hot banana boats with chocolate/marshmallow/peanut-butter goodness melted inside), we sat around talking. Quite late into the evening the few remaining girls that were up were roped into a game of "Truth or Dare" (thanks to Julia). There was really no dare (the default dare was to eat spoonful of cinnamon, which is impossible so no one picked it).
After getting yelled at by the ranger for having a fire after 11pm and for being loud during the "quiet hours" 10 pm - 7 am, we went to bed. I slept like a baby - I was awake every few hours and cried myself to sleep. Truthfully we were on an incline and I didn't sleep much at all, but the weather was awesome!

Morning didn't come soon enough. Around 7 AM I opened my trunk and the breakfast goods were spread out. The fruit that I had purchased at Costco only 18 hours prior had "turned". There was a zing to it to say the least. Those of us up early watched as the other girls came to try out the breakfast muffins and fruit. Every time anyone started to pile the fruit on their plate Julia would say "Truth or Dare". This time there was no truth - the dare was to try the fruit. And then we would laugh at the faces made when the tang of fermentation hit the taste buds. Ha. So much for my picky shopping ordeal, eh?


Buck up little Camper.

And the Survey Says...

Friday at work we had our Floor 1 (Scientists) vs. Floor 2 (Document/Project Control) women's Family Fued Game during lunch.
After scarfing down some mexican food from Cotixan's provided by the 'ol work, the girls lined two tables in front of a seated audience of mostly men. (Some of them I am not so sure about - ha. Just kidding.) 100 men were surveyed. Questions and some answers are as follows:
"What do you find behind a bar?" (#1 - Alcohol. I totally got points for the team with "bartender")
"Name something you plug in." (#1 - Television. FYI, toaster was NOT on the list.)
"Name something you do in bed besides sleep."(#1 - Whoopie. I cleaned that one up for the kids out there. One of the answers was play with children. Yikes! Hopefully they meant jumping on the bed-type stuff, not Michael Jackson-type stuff.)
"Name something that comes in a tube besides toothpaste. " (#1 medicine. Hemorroid cream.)
"Name something you keep in the fridge or freezer besides food." (#1 Ice Pack. I answered Batteries for our team.$$)
Do I need to tell you that Floor 1 wiped Floor 2 with themselves? You know what I mean, we wiped the floor with them indeed.
Good times and poor sportsmanship are ingredients for a rematch.

No, I am not winking at you

I have an eye twitch. It is getting worse by the day...and it is driving me nuts-o.

Queen of Outdated Vocabulary

Today in the lab I was cleaning out the fridge and throwing away old vials and runs. Dan was on vacation, so I didn't throw his stuff away. Greg questioned the keeping of some goods from last year. I responded that "I was going to huck the stuff, but-"
Greg stopped me. "What? You mean chuck."
"Um...same thing, but no, I mean huck - to throw."
"That is not a real word."
With Nick to back me up that you can indeed "huck a football", etc., I was off on another work poll. Out of 14 people polled, only 5 had heard or used the word "huck" to mean to throw. The other nine had never heard the term. One said to me, "You are the queen of outdated vocabulary." Apparently I had used the term "Doi" (Doy) the other week in his presence. I am also a fan of words like, "smarts", "hoity toit", and "swank". I even brought back the word "Face!" to my workplace (what you say when you "one up" or demote someone).
Partway through my poll, Elissa found "huck" in the dictionary.

huck

v. to throw, to toss, to short-arm; in disc-based sports, to throw for distance; in cycling, kayaking, snowboarding, and similar sports, to ride over a drop-off. Subjects: English

Editorial Note: This term is probably related to chuck ‘to throw with a short arm motion.’ There is a sense of hawk ‘to let fly’ with a single citation in the Oxford English Dictionary.

After finding this definition I obviously shouted "face!" to Greg.
Me? Outdated? I think not.

!Mira!

Today at work we had a Cinco de Mayo celebration with a catered lunch (mmm...beans and rice) and Hispanic dancers. I spent lunch trilling and hooting at the entertainment. I was so in the spirit of the day that I called my sister, speaking only Spanish. (It was a short conversation.) When I got home I made my first batch of mango salsa this year. Although the tomatoes were sub par (a little bland and mealy), the mangos were perfectly ripe and sweet. I slap together tomatoes, mango, onions, green peppers, serrano chiles, cilantro, a hint of lime, and salt to taste. It is sweet and hot and so stink'n good!

My chips of choice are the Tostitos Scoops. Indeed, they are perfectly scoopable.

I could pretty much live off this stuff!

High Turkeys and Fake Stumps

Today began like any other, but it peaked early noon. I was rushing around the lab this morning extracting and at the same time was visited by an HPLC column representative. In the middle of waiting for the man to leave and getting my extraction done, I stopped at my desk. Jeremy gave me a chipper "Good morning!" and then said, "High Five!" I automatically when to slap him five and as our hands neared one another he closed his into a fist and yelled "Turkey!" as it hit mine. I hope you can picture his fist as the turkey body with his thumb as the head and my flattened hand hitting his made the tail feathers of the turkey. I busted up laughing. What nerdy scientists!
After a little more rushing around the lab I went to lunch with Gail. It is a good day when "The Place" is involved. I tried the tuna today, but I don't recommend it. I am too much in love with the iron man (chicken, honey mustard, sprouts, tomato and avocado on toasted sourdough bread, AKA heaven). I also had a peach/banana smoothie to wash that tuna down.

After lunch Gail was driving us back to work and we stopped at a park. It was El Camino Memorial park and Mortuaries. Yep a cemetery. We drive past this cemetery all of the time and see the bells (that I claim I am going to go ring one day), but I always miss the entrance. Upon seeing the sign for the cemetery for the umpteenth time, she pulled in. We drove around the grounds oohing and awing at the landscaping and "views". Gail picked out where she would like to be buried unless she can afford a family mausoleum. I saw the bells but I didn't see how to ring them. I almost started to throw rocks at them to get a chime.
All along the road through the cemetery were these fake hollowed tree stumps. What the heck? Were they used to hold gardening equipment? I stuck my head out the open window and looked inside one of them. They are actually garbage cans! Genius! I think they would look quite fashionable in "parks" of every caliber.