The Great Pumpkin

Last night as I was stopped at a red light I noticed the license plate of the orange Chevy HHR in front of me... in honor of Halloween tomorrow, I thought I'd share it with you. The picture's not too great... the camera on my phone is far below par and the light turned green by the time I managed to zoom enough and snap the picture, but you get the point.

Just in case you can't read it... it says GR8PUKN. 

Linus would be proud.

I Can Hear The Bells

Congratulations to my cousin Megan and Nate who got engaged on Thursday!!!

I FOUND IT!

The universe is right again, the stars have aligned, and my bracelet has been found.

That's right. Found.

It's a miracle.

The bracelet in question belonged to my grandmother and I inherited it (by which I mean I snagged it from her jewelry box before anyone else could) a little over two years ago. I've pretty much worn it every day since, that is until the dark days hit.

If you recall about three weeks ago I went through a kinda rough patch. So lame I know... I'd rather just forget it happened. Just before that time in my life, I lost my bracelet. At first I wasn't too concerned because I just figured I'd left it somewhere awkward, like in my car or my purse or my ballet bag... I have been known to do that sometimes. But then, when several days went by and I still couldn't find it I got worried.

Well worried is putting it lightly. I literally felt sick to my stomach. I'm convinced that had I had my bracelet I would have been happier, I wouldn't have had car trouble, and my life would have been a better place. I pretty much tore the house apart looking for it, but I couldn't find it anywhere.

So, I stopped looking. Sometimes looking is what prevents you from finding something. I firmly believe that.

And look what happened... threeish weeks later, I FOUND IT!

Got an Extra Old Book or Two?

This article, "10 DIY Projects for Your Old Books" by Sam Schlinkert, was recently featured in an online book newsletter that I get and I thought it was pretty neat. It showcases 10 different ideas for ways to refurbish and reuse old books that you don't feel the need to read anymore.

The DIY projects were collected from different blogs and websites and each project includes a link to the instructions. Some are pretty intense but others don't look so bad.

These two are my favorite...

Check out the rest of the projects here!

Coolest Science Fair Project Idea Ever.

One of my friends posted this video/article combo from cnet on Facebook and I have to admit that it brings out the nerd in me... I'm basically obsessed.

This father/son team decided it would be neat to send an HD camera and an iPhone into space via a weather balloon spacecraft. Cool right? The camera made it to about 90,000 feet before the balloon burst and sent it tumbling back down to earth at speeds reaching 150mph, even with a parachute!

If I had been this technologically savvy (and they had made video cameras small enough and iPhones existed) when I was in middle school I totally would have been all over this idea for my science fair project... although getting daphnia drunk was pretty fun too...

The video is over six minutes long but soo worth watching because it's got fascinating views of the earth's atmosphere and clouds and stuff. Enjoy!

Sunsets

Last weekend I joined my parents, several professors, and about 20 college students on the college's trip down to the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, NC. It's a trip the ecology class takes every other year and one that I've been going on since I was 1. The pictures below are looking at the Beaufort Harbor at sunset on our last night on the island. So pretty.

 This one is looking back at the lab from across the water.

The Distant Hours

Well I'm pretty excited about this one. Kate Morton, author of one of my new favorite books The Forgotton Garden, has a new book, The Distant Hours.

Here's the synopsis she recently posted on her website....

*** 

THE DISTANT HOURS

It started with a letter. A letter that had been lost for a long time, waiting out half a century, stifling summer after cooling winter, in a forgotten postal bag in the dim attic of a nondescript house in Bermondsey…

Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close, but when a long lost letter arrives one Sunday afternoon with the return address of Millderhurst Castle, Kent, printed on its envelope, Edie begins to suspect that her mother’s emotional distance masks an old secret.

Evacuated from London as a twelve year old girl, Edie’s mother is chosen by the mysterious Juniper Blythe, and taken to live at Millderhurst Castle with the Blythe family: Juniper, her twin sisters and their father, Raymond, author of the 1920s children’s classic, The True History of the Mud Man. In the grand and glorious Millderhurst Castle, a new world opens up for Edie’s mother. She discovers the joys of books and fantasy and writing, but also, ultimately, the dangers.

Fifty years later, as Edie chases the answers to her mother’s riddle, she, too, is drawn to Millderhurst Castle and the eccentric sisters Blythe. Old ladies now, the three still live together, the twins nursing Juniper, whose abandonment by her fiancé in 1941 plunged her into madness.

Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother’s past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Millderhurst Castle, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. For the truth of what happened in the distant hours has been waiting a long time for someone to find it...

***

Looks good doesn't it! The Distant Hours will be released in hardcover on November 9, in the states. I can't wait.

As an added bonus, Kate also posted a book trailer on her website. It's pretty neat so I'm including it here. Enjoy!

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton from Pan Macmillan on Vimeo.

Eyeball Blues

So yesterday morning my eye still felt like someone was gouging a knife through it every time I blinked, or moved, or was alive, so I broke down and went to the eye doctor to see he could shed some light on my painful problem.

After poking around in my eye a bit, he finally found the offending particle. A teeny, tiny little calcium deposit had gotten trapped under my eyelid and was the source of all my pain and suffering. So, he got out his ultra fine tipped tweezers and picked it off my eye. Yay!

So now, except for the occasional twinge, which is easily soothed by the eyedrops he gave me, my eye feels allll better.

Thank god for doctors.

Beautiful

The sunset tonight was amazing. Who knew that the sky over the Target parking lot could look so good!

In other news... my eye really hurts, hopefully it will feel better in the morning.

10-10-10

I'm pretty sure that there is nothing cooler than a fun date! Be it 3-3-10 (see this post for the amazing significance of the date) or 1-2-03, I love it when the numbers align! I can't wait for March 14, 2015, because at 9:26 and 53 seconds, the year and date will align to be the first 10 digits of pi... 3/14/15 9:26:53.

Today is 10-10-10, which in addition to being all even, round numbers, is also a fertilizer, so go fertilize your lawn or something in honor of the day.

Happy 10-10-10 Day

Meet... Storm!

Well agida and all, I bought a car. In the end I did decide to go with the Corolla because it was pretty, had a simple dashboard/entertainment thing, and the most comfortable seats.

I decided to name it Storm, but since I've never named my car before, this may be the only time I ever call it anything other than my car. I picked the name because the color of my car reminds me of the color the sky gets right before a huge rain storm/thunder storm comes through.

Five Reasons Buying A Car Gives Me Agida

I may or may not buy a new car this evening. Meaning, I'm going to, but I'm scared to death about it, mostly because buying a new car represents just about everything in the world that makes me nervous, uncomfortable, and scared, minus natural disasters. Here's just a glimpse of how dazed and confused my mind is right now...

1. Change - I hate change. I wish everything could stay the same forever. Unfortunately, it can't. That is one of the saddest truths about life.

2. Commitment - If I buy a car, I'm committing myself to it for at least the next ten years... probs more. What if I hate it? What if it's a lemon? What if I would have liked a different one better? My fear of commitment, combined with my fear of change, is probably why I will never get married.

3. Decisions - Anyone who knows me knows that I am the most indecisive person on the planet. I hate making decisions and am convinced that the choice I make is usually the wrong one.

4. Growing up - Most of you also know that thinking about the future (and being, gasp!, an ADULT) freaks me out more than most things, and this car basically represents my entrance into the adult world. I will have (and pay) my own insurance, I'll have monthly car payments, I'll have something super official in my name (read the car title), basically I'll be old.

4. Money - To me, there is almost nothing worse than spending a large amount of money all in one place on one thing. I'm never going to be able to buy a house... hello cardboard box.

On the bright side, the probable new car is very pretty! It's a 2010 Toyota Corolla, color Magnetic Grey Metallic.

Science Is FUN!

About 90% of the following silly scientific things were either sent to me by my father or found on his facebook page. Oh the joys of having a biology teacher for a dad.

The first, "Hello Darwin, My Old Friend," a.k.a. the classic Simon and Garfunkel song "Sound of Silence" is a pretty fantastic tribute to Darwin.

These fabulous cookies, cakes, and cupcakes were featured on an awesome cooking blog called Not So Humble Pie, which belongs to a biologist turned baker. My old genetics professor probably would have died over the drosophila cookies, but the mouse cookies are my personal favorite.

Next up we have a sweet knitted DNA pattern from the website twosheep.com. The pattern is featured here in Dr. Montville's DNA Double Helix Fisherman Scarf.

Finally, we have a full on knitted dissection of a mouse, a frog, and a pig from Emily Stoneking of the Etsy shop Crafty Hedgehog. You can buy the patterns for the mouse and frog while the pig is made to order... I would totally have knit these for my favorite bio teacher in college! I think Yorty would have loved them!

Is it wrong that I find these adorable?

A New Car... Maybe

I may or may not be in the market for a new vehicle... below (in no particular order) are the three cars I'm most seriously considering... they are all basically the same in size, gas milage, safety features, etc. Decisions decisions. Opinions anyone?

Toyota Corolla... this one gets amazing gas mileage

 Honda Fit... this one has ten cup holders and crazy storage options

Honda Civic... this one only has two cup holders, may be a disadvantage