Get excited for hearing all about it later on this weekend...
Love, love, super apprehensive but excited love,
Plunk!
Friday, July 30, 2010
...Experiencing Colorado
One week left in Colorado... and all I can say is that the end is far too near. For my last weekend in paradise, I am going out to Aspen to climb up Castle and Conundrum Peaks with four of my favorite people in the world. Both mountains are 14ers (at least 14,000 ft. high) and look like a lot of fun. While I won't be carrying my camera (it's a bit large for a lightweight hike) I will certainly be mooching off of my friend's much smaller point-and-shoot. For now, however, feast your eyes on the view I will be seeing tomorrow morning, and be jealous.
Get excited for hearing all about it later on this weekend...
Love, love, super apprehensive but excited love,
Plunk!
Get excited for hearing all about it later on this weekend...
Love, love, super apprehensive but excited love,
Plunk!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
...Making the Most of Limited Time
When you only have two weekends left in Boulder, there is nothing better to do than to fill them to the brim with exciting things to do. When I realized this last Friday, I knew that I could not allow myself to be needlessly idle for any part of what was shaping up to be a gorgeous, cool, sunshine-y weekend. And therefore I did not.
Saturday morning I started things off with a bright and early ride out to Rabbit Mountain on Lacey. Can you say "best-trail-ride-of-my-life-omgoodness-amazing?" Because that's about how I felt. The first several miles of the ride were flat and filled with grashoppers. I'm serious. If you've never gallopped through a field and had millions upon millions of grashoppers flying in every direction around you, you really haven't lived. We didn't actually make it up the mountain... due to time restraints and a sore hiney. As much as I absolutely adore riding bareback... it really leaves a... lasting impression, if you know what I mean. Most of the ride back to the farm was spent sidesaddle to give my bum a break.
But out of this ride came one of the most beautiful views there is...behold, freedom.
Just ignore the barbed wire fence in the foreground. Really, in the next 30 seconds after this photo was taken Lacey reared, took down the fence with her deathly hoofs, and we galloped off into the distance. Or... we just kept walking along the fence.
Anyway. After we got back to the farm, I had about a half-hour to kill while I wated to pick up Lisa from her morning bike ride. So what did I do? I set Lacey loose in a field and I layed down to take a nap. Only to be woken up a few minutes later by a curious pony snuffling in my fanny pack and drooling on my face. That's love for you. Then one of the barn dogs came over to cuddle with me as Lacey kindly ate all of the grass that was tickling my legs. Heaven, I tell you, it was heaven.
After a shower and a quick cleaning of my room (finally) I met up with a friend under very strange circumstances. He lives in Western Mass, very near Mount Holyoke. We've been talking all summer, getting excited for when we can finally hang out in August. Randomly he had to do some work training in New Mexico (oh, the Military), so we were, for once, in the same time zone. Huzzah! But wait! There's more! There's a mountaineering shop in Boulder that he's been dying to visit, so he was going to be in town for a few hours. Obviously it was time to go putz around Pearl Street for a while.
We watched a banjo band for a while... well, to be specific, a banjo/washboard/uke/fiddle/guitar/tambourine band. They were great. And shirtless. Win win for me, I think. There were your typical jugglers and magicians... flaming knives and unstable ladders... you know the drill. We stopped at my favorite little deli (inside Haagen Daas) and grabbed a T.B.A. (turkey/bacon/avacado) sammich. Yes, it is as delicious as it sounds. And then he was gone, almost as quickly as he appeared. It was a fun visit, and I can't wait to go hiking with him back on the east coast come fall time.
Speaking of hikes, that's what I did for the rest of the weekend. Well, hiking and camping that is. Brian, Aaron, Emily, Lisa, Prateek and I packed up and left civilization mid-afternoon, and spent about two hours offroading to get up to a camp site in the Indian Peaks. It was already getting dark by the time we got up there, so we quickly cut down a few trees (you don't think I'm serious?) hauled them to the site in the back of my pick-up (heck yes!) made a fire, and put up camp. That night was a night of were-pika stories and reeses s'mores. What more could you ask for?
Well, you could ask for a morning of the best hike I've ever been on. It was relatively flat, we only gained about 1200ft of elevation. Of course, this put us up around 11,700ft at our highest point. Yes kids, thats more than two miles above sea level. We hiked along an old abandoned mining road, complete with crumpling bridges.
We eventually made it out to Kings Lake, a glacier-fed looking glass lake in the midst of the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen.
We spent maybe an hour just hanging out at this lake. Emily did yoga on a rock in the center of the water, Lisa and I slept on rocks by the glacier waterfall, Prateek, Brian, and Aaron had their man love time off in the wilderness together. It was surreal.
6 miles of hiking, 1200ft of elevation, half an hour where I could not feel my fingertips. Why was this, you ask? Because I'm really terrible at glissading, and had to use my hands to stop myself from plummetting to my death at the bottom of a glacier. You see, glissading can be thought of as skiing down a glacier. The difference, however, is that you aren't wearing any skis. You are just on your feet, pointed straight down a mountain of ice. This mountain of ice to be specific:
Believe me, it was fun, it was terrifying, and it hurt. But I would not hesitate to try again if I were given the opportunity.
Sadly, we all had work the next day, so we had to leave this wild paradise to head back to our urban one. Exhaustion won over, and after watching Velvet Goldmine for the first time (a movie which I now highly recommend), I collapsed into bed for sleep. Thus ended my magical weekend.
Stay tuned for further information on my research, some pretty bomb videos of printing onto thin films, and further discussions of such things as Bands on the Bricks.
Love love, finger numbing glacial love,
Amy Plunk!
Saturday morning I started things off with a bright and early ride out to Rabbit Mountain on Lacey. Can you say "best-trail-ride-of-my-life-omgoodness-amazing?" Because that's about how I felt. The first several miles of the ride were flat and filled with grashoppers. I'm serious. If you've never gallopped through a field and had millions upon millions of grashoppers flying in every direction around you, you really haven't lived. We didn't actually make it up the mountain... due to time restraints and a sore hiney. As much as I absolutely adore riding bareback... it really leaves a... lasting impression, if you know what I mean. Most of the ride back to the farm was spent sidesaddle to give my bum a break.
But out of this ride came one of the most beautiful views there is...behold, freedom.
Just ignore the barbed wire fence in the foreground. Really, in the next 30 seconds after this photo was taken Lacey reared, took down the fence with her deathly hoofs, and we galloped off into the distance. Or... we just kept walking along the fence.
Anyway. After we got back to the farm, I had about a half-hour to kill while I wated to pick up Lisa from her morning bike ride. So what did I do? I set Lacey loose in a field and I layed down to take a nap. Only to be woken up a few minutes later by a curious pony snuffling in my fanny pack and drooling on my face. That's love for you. Then one of the barn dogs came over to cuddle with me as Lacey kindly ate all of the grass that was tickling my legs. Heaven, I tell you, it was heaven.
After a shower and a quick cleaning of my room (finally) I met up with a friend under very strange circumstances. He lives in Western Mass, very near Mount Holyoke. We've been talking all summer, getting excited for when we can finally hang out in August. Randomly he had to do some work training in New Mexico (oh, the Military), so we were, for once, in the same time zone. Huzzah! But wait! There's more! There's a mountaineering shop in Boulder that he's been dying to visit, so he was going to be in town for a few hours. Obviously it was time to go putz around Pearl Street for a while.
We watched a banjo band for a while... well, to be specific, a banjo/washboard/uke/fiddle/guitar/tambourine band. They were great. And shirtless. Win win for me, I think. There were your typical jugglers and magicians... flaming knives and unstable ladders... you know the drill. We stopped at my favorite little deli (inside Haagen Daas) and grabbed a T.B.A. (turkey/bacon/avacado) sammich. Yes, it is as delicious as it sounds. And then he was gone, almost as quickly as he appeared. It was a fun visit, and I can't wait to go hiking with him back on the east coast come fall time.
Speaking of hikes, that's what I did for the rest of the weekend. Well, hiking and camping that is. Brian, Aaron, Emily, Lisa, Prateek and I packed up and left civilization mid-afternoon, and spent about two hours offroading to get up to a camp site in the Indian Peaks. It was already getting dark by the time we got up there, so we quickly cut down a few trees (you don't think I'm serious?) hauled them to the site in the back of my pick-up (heck yes!) made a fire, and put up camp. That night was a night of were-pika stories and reeses s'mores. What more could you ask for?
Well, you could ask for a morning of the best hike I've ever been on. It was relatively flat, we only gained about 1200ft of elevation. Of course, this put us up around 11,700ft at our highest point. Yes kids, thats more than two miles above sea level. We hiked along an old abandoned mining road, complete with crumpling bridges.
We eventually made it out to Kings Lake, a glacier-fed looking glass lake in the midst of the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen.
We spent maybe an hour just hanging out at this lake. Emily did yoga on a rock in the center of the water, Lisa and I slept on rocks by the glacier waterfall, Prateek, Brian, and Aaron had their man love time off in the wilderness together. It was surreal.
6 miles of hiking, 1200ft of elevation, half an hour where I could not feel my fingertips. Why was this, you ask? Because I'm really terrible at glissading, and had to use my hands to stop myself from plummetting to my death at the bottom of a glacier. You see, glissading can be thought of as skiing down a glacier. The difference, however, is that you aren't wearing any skis. You are just on your feet, pointed straight down a mountain of ice. This mountain of ice to be specific:
Believe me, it was fun, it was terrifying, and it hurt. But I would not hesitate to try again if I were given the opportunity.
Sadly, we all had work the next day, so we had to leave this wild paradise to head back to our urban one. Exhaustion won over, and after watching Velvet Goldmine for the first time (a movie which I now highly recommend), I collapsed into bed for sleep. Thus ended my magical weekend.
Stay tuned for further information on my research, some pretty bomb videos of printing onto thin films, and further discussions of such things as Bands on the Bricks.
Love love, finger numbing glacial love,
Amy Plunk!
Friday, July 23, 2010
...Living Communally
Before this summer my only real experience in living in a group of people has involved dorm life. Don't get me wrong, I am absolutely in love with my friends and extended family at Mount Holyoke. I love having late night hall hang-outs where we talk for hours about nothing. I love being able to walk into the Abbey-Buck dining hall at two in the morning and finding at least half-a-dozen of my friends there. But this summer, this living experience, has brought it all to a whole new level.
I have found that there is a secret formula to communal living. It involves some combination of a lack of homework, an abundance of kitchens, and access to a large number of ridiculous free activities. This secret formula, if used correctly, can lead to a life of potlucks, camping trips, sporcle, blues shows, and more!
What we will focus on today is the potlucks. I wish I had taken more pictures, but unfortunately (for you) at all of our potluck dinners I have been too busy eating delicious food to snap off some photos. And yes, I did say *all* of our potluck dinners. As in, we have had more than one. As in, we have a potluck every Thursday night.
If you were to walk onto the second floor of my apartment building around 8 on any given Thursday, you would find three or four tv stands stacked next to each other in the hall. They would be surrounded by twelve-ish bar stools and covered in a motley crew of food.
At first we thought that we should put themes on each week. Of course, this was until we realized that it was so much more fun to see what people came up with on their own. I doubt that I can remember all of the food that we have eaten, but the general rundown of a potluck might look something like this:
Every week after the potluck we all sit around in food comas for a while. I wish I could say I was exaggerating, I really do. But I'm serious when I say that for approximately half an hour after the food stops coming, we just sit there. We sit there, we giggle, and we usually come precariously close to falling off of our stools. Well, at least I do. After that... things go one of two directions. Of course, if you throw a bunch of 19-22 year olds together in a small amount of space, there will be gin buckets. Gin buckets and everclear jello shots. Luckily, last night was not a night where we realized the collected potential of all of our college-age stupidity.
Last night, instead of drunken shenanigans, we participated in a Sporcle marathon. Oh? You don't know about sporcle? What a shame. Sporcle.com is a website that has saved me on many a boring work day. It is a website filled with trivia quizzes that cover topics ranging from the "Winningest managers of NFL teams" to "The 200 most mentioned characters in the Harry Potter Book series." Needless to say, I did much better on the latter of those quizzes.
Sporcle is a great way to get a bunch of overly-smart kids into a room, all shouting at the same time at one flustered person who is furiously trying to type as fast as us yellers can think. You'd be amazed at how good we are at forgetting all of the countries in the world that start with the letter 'c'. Of course, when one of us finally emerges from our flood of over-thinking, the line "Canada! Canada is a country" is shouted, and we all fall over in laughter.
After we had exhausted our communal knowledge bases for the night, we went our separate ways for a few hours before bed. Some went on a long walk. Some went to stargaze. Some became incredibly domestic, and spent the night embroidering and watching Lie to Me on Netflix (yeahhhh that would be me and Lisa, how did you know?).
Thus ended my Thursday night and began my Friday morning.
Today was the last day for me to work with Sam, my undergrad lab partner. It was sad to watch him leave. To go on to bigger and better things (Law School at UTexas? Whaaaaa?) And now I have to do all of my work by myself. Should be interesting.
The good news, however, is that I was able to get water printing onto a thin film of our liquid crystal. We have been trying to deposit tiny glass beads onto the thin film using water... and finally we have been able to get them on there. The problem now is just that the film usually breaks after a second or two of having the glass beads on its surface. One must try and try again.
Three posts in approximately three days. Y'all best be giving me a long distance pat on the back... this is a huge new record for me. And now I must leave you, for I should be working and not blogging. But I promise that I love you all, and miss you terribly.
Sending loads of inappropriate love your way,
Plunk!
I have found that there is a secret formula to communal living. It involves some combination of a lack of homework, an abundance of kitchens, and access to a large number of ridiculous free activities. This secret formula, if used correctly, can lead to a life of potlucks, camping trips, sporcle, blues shows, and more!
What we will focus on today is the potlucks. I wish I had taken more pictures, but unfortunately (for you) at all of our potluck dinners I have been too busy eating delicious food to snap off some photos. And yes, I did say *all* of our potluck dinners. As in, we have had more than one. As in, we have a potluck every Thursday night.
If you were to walk onto the second floor of my apartment building around 8 on any given Thursday, you would find three or four tv stands stacked next to each other in the hall. They would be surrounded by twelve-ish bar stools and covered in a motley crew of food.
At first we thought that we should put themes on each week. Of course, this was until we realized that it was so much more fun to see what people came up with on their own. I doubt that I can remember all of the food that we have eaten, but the general rundown of a potluck might look something like this:
- Fruit salad
- Chicken curry
- Lentil soup
- Garlic cheese grits
- Stuffed cucumbers
- Upside-down cake
- Pasta salad
- Baked mac n' cheese
- Pie
Every week after the potluck we all sit around in food comas for a while. I wish I could say I was exaggerating, I really do. But I'm serious when I say that for approximately half an hour after the food stops coming, we just sit there. We sit there, we giggle, and we usually come precariously close to falling off of our stools. Well, at least I do. After that... things go one of two directions. Of course, if you throw a bunch of 19-22 year olds together in a small amount of space, there will be gin buckets. Gin buckets and everclear jello shots. Luckily, last night was not a night where we realized the collected potential of all of our college-age stupidity.
Last night, instead of drunken shenanigans, we participated in a Sporcle marathon. Oh? You don't know about sporcle? What a shame. Sporcle.com is a website that has saved me on many a boring work day. It is a website filled with trivia quizzes that cover topics ranging from the "Winningest managers of NFL teams" to "The 200 most mentioned characters in the Harry Potter Book series." Needless to say, I did much better on the latter of those quizzes.
Sporcle is a great way to get a bunch of overly-smart kids into a room, all shouting at the same time at one flustered person who is furiously trying to type as fast as us yellers can think. You'd be amazed at how good we are at forgetting all of the countries in the world that start with the letter 'c'. Of course, when one of us finally emerges from our flood of over-thinking, the line "Canada! Canada is a country" is shouted, and we all fall over in laughter.
After we had exhausted our communal knowledge bases for the night, we went our separate ways for a few hours before bed. Some went on a long walk. Some went to stargaze. Some became incredibly domestic, and spent the night embroidering and watching Lie to Me on Netflix (yeahhhh that would be me and Lisa, how did you know?).
Thus ended my Thursday night and began my Friday morning.
Today was the last day for me to work with Sam, my undergrad lab partner. It was sad to watch him leave. To go on to bigger and better things (Law School at UTexas? Whaaaaa?) And now I have to do all of my work by myself. Should be interesting.
The good news, however, is that I was able to get water printing onto a thin film of our liquid crystal. We have been trying to deposit tiny glass beads onto the thin film using water... and finally we have been able to get them on there. The problem now is just that the film usually breaks after a second or two of having the glass beads on its surface. One must try and try again.
Three posts in approximately three days. Y'all best be giving me a long distance pat on the back... this is a huge new record for me. And now I must leave you, for I should be working and not blogging. But I promise that I love you all, and miss you terribly.
Sending loads of inappropriate love your way,
Plunk!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
...African Marimba Music
Have I mentioned that I'm in love with Boulder? Because I don't think that I have emphasized it enough. Really. No sarcasm here.
Only in Boulder can you make your way into downtown on a Wednesday night and find yourself smack dab in the middle of both a farmer's market and a Carribean Marimba Concert. I'm serious, this is legit, dancing-in-the-street type madness. Right. Let's back this up a titty bit, shall we?
After work today I popped over to visit Lacey and go on a relaxing ride. We ran along side of a Coyote for a few minutes, jumped back and forth over a creek, and I layed on her back while she grazed in the shade of a gorgeous willow. Heaven. After I put her out to pasture, I wrestled with two of the farm dogs for a while, and got nice and muddy. Really, kids, it's the best way to be. Don't let your parents tell you anything different. A good tussle with an overgrown huskey was all that I needed to unwind from the ball of stress I had become at work earlier. And now, loose as string of yarn, I was ready to go deal with my mess of an apartment.
The truth is, we have been kind of lax about keeping up the cleanliness of our humble abode lately. It's been really bothering me, but I'm never home long enough to do much about it. Ces't la vie, right? Today was no exception. Almost as soon as I got out of my (very lovely and relaxing) shower, I was on my bike and zipping off to downtown.
There once was a place in downtown Boulder. A magical place of delicious aromas and inspiring sights. This place was, and still is known as the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House. A magnificant facade hides an even more magnificent fountain, and the most wonderful thing a tea house can offer: cheap, delicious, excellent quality tea. Approximately $3.50, give or take a few cents, will get you a pot of any tea on the menu. The 7 Chakra blend is a personal favorite of mine... a spearmint tingle with a cinnamon aftertaste. How wonderful.
Anyway. The point of all of this, is that I ate dinner there. Grant (my adorably awkward Chemical Engineer neighbor) and I grabbed a bite to eat before wandering into the depths of Pearl Street (more on that later). Want to know what I had? Stuffed eggplant. "Stuffed with?" you ask. Stuffed with lentils, ricotta, spinach, tomatoes, and magic. That's what.
After an hour and a half of good food and even better company, we made our way over to the Pearl Street Mall. For those of you who know DC, think King Street, but having no cars present. For those from Western Mass, think Northampton, again, with no cars. This is one of the cultural hubs of Boulder. Any night of the week you can go there and be guaranteed to find at least a half of a dozen street performers ranging from a "bronze" cowboy to a man who knows every zip code in the world to a man juggaling fire on a unicycle.
Wednesday nights are particularly busy on Pearl Street. Band on the Bricks is a summer concert series where local artists are showcased weekly. So far I've seen a local Jazz singer, a Samba band, and this week, a Zimbabwean Marimba Ensemble. So much crazy dancing! A quote from their website, so you can get an idea of this ensemble:
I've been really trying to concentrate on not being self conscious in public... and all of this dancing in the street is really doing a number for my confidence :-) It helped that I was with Grant, Eric, and Tess. The latter two being two of the world's more beautiful creations. Both in mind and body, these two are just wonderful, and every time I see them, I just can't help but smile.
As cheesy as that sounds, it's true. I am finding some of the world's most wonderful people here in Boulder. There's no wonder this city has so many implants, you just can't help but fall in love with the atmosphere, and the kind of the people that are attracted to it are just the kind of people I would love to spend the rest of my time with.
Sadly, I have none of my own pictures to give visual reference to these words, but I'm going to yank some photos from online, just so that you all will have an idea of how beautiful my life here is.
Good night and dream well to you all! Although I can't imagine leaving this place, I miss you all terribly.
Love love, wonderful soul-dancing love,
Amy Plunk!
Only in Boulder can you make your way into downtown on a Wednesday night and find yourself smack dab in the middle of both a farmer's market and a Carribean Marimba Concert. I'm serious, this is legit, dancing-in-the-street type madness. Right. Let's back this up a titty bit, shall we?
After work today I popped over to visit Lacey and go on a relaxing ride. We ran along side of a Coyote for a few minutes, jumped back and forth over a creek, and I layed on her back while she grazed in the shade of a gorgeous willow. Heaven. After I put her out to pasture, I wrestled with two of the farm dogs for a while, and got nice and muddy. Really, kids, it's the best way to be. Don't let your parents tell you anything different. A good tussle with an overgrown huskey was all that I needed to unwind from the ball of stress I had become at work earlier. And now, loose as string of yarn, I was ready to go deal with my mess of an apartment.
The truth is, we have been kind of lax about keeping up the cleanliness of our humble abode lately. It's been really bothering me, but I'm never home long enough to do much about it. Ces't la vie, right? Today was no exception. Almost as soon as I got out of my (very lovely and relaxing) shower, I was on my bike and zipping off to downtown.
There once was a place in downtown Boulder. A magical place of delicious aromas and inspiring sights. This place was, and still is known as the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House. A magnificant facade hides an even more magnificent fountain, and the most wonderful thing a tea house can offer: cheap, delicious, excellent quality tea. Approximately $3.50, give or take a few cents, will get you a pot of any tea on the menu. The 7 Chakra blend is a personal favorite of mine... a spearmint tingle with a cinnamon aftertaste. How wonderful.
Anyway. The point of all of this, is that I ate dinner there. Grant (my adorably awkward Chemical Engineer neighbor) and I grabbed a bite to eat before wandering into the depths of Pearl Street (more on that later). Want to know what I had? Stuffed eggplant. "Stuffed with?" you ask. Stuffed with lentils, ricotta, spinach, tomatoes, and magic. That's what.
After an hour and a half of good food and even better company, we made our way over to the Pearl Street Mall. For those of you who know DC, think King Street, but having no cars present. For those from Western Mass, think Northampton, again, with no cars. This is one of the cultural hubs of Boulder. Any night of the week you can go there and be guaranteed to find at least a half of a dozen street performers ranging from a "bronze" cowboy to a man who knows every zip code in the world to a man juggaling fire on a unicycle.
Wednesday nights are particularly busy on Pearl Street. Band on the Bricks is a summer concert series where local artists are showcased weekly. So far I've seen a local Jazz singer, a Samba band, and this week, a Zimbabwean Marimba Ensemble. So much crazy dancing! A quote from their website, so you can get an idea of this ensemble:
"Kutandara fuses ancient African music traditions with Latin, jazz, gospel, classical, and world folk influences. Our exuberant and hi-energy polyrhythmic performances manage to be innovative and deeply-rooted at the same time."
I've been really trying to concentrate on not being self conscious in public... and all of this dancing in the street is really doing a number for my confidence :-) It helped that I was with Grant, Eric, and Tess. The latter two being two of the world's more beautiful creations. Both in mind and body, these two are just wonderful, and every time I see them, I just can't help but smile.
As cheesy as that sounds, it's true. I am finding some of the world's most wonderful people here in Boulder. There's no wonder this city has so many implants, you just can't help but fall in love with the atmosphere, and the kind of the people that are attracted to it are just the kind of people I would love to spend the rest of my time with.
Sadly, I have none of my own pictures to give visual reference to these words, but I'm going to yank some photos from online, just so that you all will have an idea of how beautiful my life here is.
Good night and dream well to you all! Although I can't imagine leaving this place, I miss you all terribly.
Love love, wonderful soul-dancing love,
Amy Plunk!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
...Updating my Blog Regularly
Yes, yes, I know I am a terrible person. My mother keeps reminding me to update this blog, and I keep pushing it back. So here we go. Let's see how well I can catch you all up on the last month without boring you half to death.
Unfortunately, my research has remained slow and not-so-steady, but alas, thus is the nature of research. But we have made some progress. We were able to induce a current flow through our needle, and to view some liquid crystal being deposited onto the tip of the needle. However, the needle became clogged, and is now in Texas for repairs. I've been practicing making thin films for the past few days, and trying to print onto them using an inkjet printhead. The film keeps breaking, but eventually I'll get the voltage right. I hope, at least.
I've been biking a lot. A lot a lot. I climbed my first mountain! There's a town called Jamestown about 17 miles from Boulder, up Lefthand Canyon. It's a gorgeous ride, but a strenuous one. I've tried a few different climbs since them... all of them harder than Jamestown, but each more beautiful than the last. I love being in a city where you can get to Sunshine Canyon in 20 minutes, a looking-glass lake in half an hour, and beautiful mountain top towns after several miles of a long ride.
For the fourth of July weekend I went with my hall-mates, among others, to spend two nights camping outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. I made fire! Legitimate fire! Using flint and magnesium... and a paper plate. It was two days of hot dogs, s'mores, and huddling around the campfire. Magical.
On the first morning we took a long hike up to the peak of the closest mountain. The landscape near the top was eerie... sandy and barren, with ghost-like tree corpses lying around our feet.
The views from up there were gorgeous. We went up to a lower rise to watch the sunset, and see the stars, and I don't think I'd ever seen a more beautiful night sky.
When we weren't hiking, we were playing t-rex football and frisbee, climbing trees, and wrestling each other.
Oh, wait, you've never heard of T-rex football? Think about it this way - T-rexes have tiny arms. Not very useful. If you mix a T-rex with sporting goods, this is what you get. Meet Miguel, the king of T-rex sports.
Once we tired of T-rex football, it became "anything but hands" football. Sam won. Hands down.
And as I leave work for the day, I will leave you with two beautiful shots of the view from the top of our hike on that morning. This week will be a week of ponies, biking, and delicious food. Hopefully I can motivate myself to update more often. Hopefully.
Love you all bunches!
Amy!
Unfortunately, my research has remained slow and not-so-steady, but alas, thus is the nature of research. But we have made some progress. We were able to induce a current flow through our needle, and to view some liquid crystal being deposited onto the tip of the needle. However, the needle became clogged, and is now in Texas for repairs. I've been practicing making thin films for the past few days, and trying to print onto them using an inkjet printhead. The film keeps breaking, but eventually I'll get the voltage right. I hope, at least.
I've been biking a lot. A lot a lot. I climbed my first mountain! There's a town called Jamestown about 17 miles from Boulder, up Lefthand Canyon. It's a gorgeous ride, but a strenuous one. I've tried a few different climbs since them... all of them harder than Jamestown, but each more beautiful than the last. I love being in a city where you can get to Sunshine Canyon in 20 minutes, a looking-glass lake in half an hour, and beautiful mountain top towns after several miles of a long ride.
For the fourth of July weekend I went with my hall-mates, among others, to spend two nights camping outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. I made fire! Legitimate fire! Using flint and magnesium... and a paper plate. It was two days of hot dogs, s'mores, and huddling around the campfire. Magical.
On the first morning we took a long hike up to the peak of the closest mountain. The landscape near the top was eerie... sandy and barren, with ghost-like tree corpses lying around our feet.
The views from up there were gorgeous. We went up to a lower rise to watch the sunset, and see the stars, and I don't think I'd ever seen a more beautiful night sky.
When we weren't hiking, we were playing t-rex football and frisbee, climbing trees, and wrestling each other.
Oh, wait, you've never heard of T-rex football? Think about it this way - T-rexes have tiny arms. Not very useful. If you mix a T-rex with sporting goods, this is what you get. Meet Miguel, the king of T-rex sports.
And as I leave work for the day, I will leave you with two beautiful shots of the view from the top of our hike on that morning. This week will be a week of ponies, biking, and delicious food. Hopefully I can motivate myself to update more often. Hopefully.
Love you all bunches!
Amy!
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