Home Sweet Home October 2, 2009

Well, there she is.  Our new house.  I know I’ve promised pictures for a while now and we’ve been in it for over a month.  Basically I figured it was about time I got some pictures up.  So here’s your virtual tour of our house.

When you come in the front door you’ll see something along the lines of this:

And here’s a view of the front door itself:

You may notice that I haven’t shown you what is directly to your right when you walk in the front door.  That’s because that room is not finished yet.  It’s the “formal living room” and right now has pretty much nothing in it but a piano bench and a guitar.  Very exciting stuff.  Once we get my piano from my parents, that will be in this room and I’ll take some pictures and post them…probably about 6 months after we get the piano. 

OK, next to the formal living room is the dining room which you may have noticed in one of the pictures above.  Here’s a closer look:

Currently we are using my parents’ old dining room set, which I think is at least 20 years old.  We’re hoping to replace this before too long, but this is definitely better than nothing and has already served us very well.

From the dining room you move into the kitchen:

You might note the sad excuse for a dishwasher in the second picture with the front panel missing.  I’m very happy to inform you that we have replaced that with a brand new dishwasher that is awesome.  Also, I didn’t include a picture of our massive pantry, and by massive I mean it could be a fourth bedroom.  It’s completely awesome, but I didn’t think everyone would want to see a picture of our groceries.  Another thing I left out of the pictures is our “Harry Potter closet.”  I call it that because it’s the closet under the stairs and that’s where Harry Potter lived with his aunt and uncle.  Anyway, it’s just a closet and it’s kind of a mess, so no picture…Sorry.

From the kitchen we move into the breakfast room and living room.  Those rooms look something like this:

These rooms have become quite a bit more disarrayed and cluttered since the newest addition to the Pollard household, our new puppy Ender (a couple of pics later in the post).  That’s pretty much all of the downstairs except the half bathroom and the coat closet, again nothing special so no pics.

Now if we head upstairs the first thing you walk in to is the game room:

This area is not exactly finished, but it’s one of my favorite places in the whole house.  The other rooms upstairs are the office, the guest bedroom and the master bedroom.  Unfortunately I don’t have pics of the office right now since it was still a disaster when I was taking pictures to post three weeks ago.  So let’s move into the guest bedroom:

And finally here are pictures of the master bedroom:

So there’s all the pictures I have of the house right now.  None of them do the house justice.  To get the full effect, you really just need to come visit us.  Plus if you come visit us you get to meet our new puppy, Ender.

Ender is a Maltipoo, a mix between a Maltese and a Poodle.  He is 8 weeks old today, we got him last Friday when he was 7 weeks old.  He weighs 1lb 14oz, or at least he did on Tuesday when we went to the vet…for the second time in two days.  The poor little guy got a cough on Monday night.  We have him on some medicine and he’s getting better.

Well, I think that’s all the interesting stuff I have to say, so I hope you enjoyed it.

Wandering Around Washington August 24, 2009

I know I promised this post a couple of days ago, but I didn’t get around to it.  Sorry.  But I guess it’s better late than never. So, here goes…

Last week I went to Washington, DC for the fall national meeting of the American Chemical Society.  I left early last Saturday morning and arrived in DC’s Reagan airport early Saturday afternoon.  Then I had an adventure on the Metro trying to figure out which stop I wanted to get off at to get me to my hotel.  After about an hour and a half of riding around on the Metro, I finally made it where I wanted to.  For those of you who know me well, this is probably no surprise.  I am lacking in directional and map-reading skills.  This little adventure on the Metro was actually pretty helpful since I figured out where a lot of things were, it just took me a while to get to my hotel.  So after my Metro adventure and walking from the Metro station to my hotel, I was pretty much exhausted and spent the remainder of the evening hanging out in my hotel room, leaving only once in search of food.  So nothing super-exciting happened on Saturday.

Sunday was the day of my presentation at the conference, so I made sure to get up early and head over to the convention center in plenty of time to find the location of my talk.  My talk was during the second half of the morning session of the analytical chemistry talks on bioanalytical chemistry.  So I got to sit through the first half of the talks before giving mine.  I find this process pretty relaxing.  I like to listen to what other people are researching and get my mind off of my presentation.  I was supposed to be the 4th speaker out of 5 in the second half, but the last speaker did not show up for some reason, so I ended up being the last speaker prior to lunch.  My presentation went really well and I was glad to have it behind me.  The rest of the day Sunday was spent planning my schedule for the rest of the trip.  I needed to decide what other sessions of the conference I wanted to attend and when I might have time for some sight-seeing.  This being my first time in Washington, DC, I wanted to see everything.  This, of course, was not really possible, so I had to decide what was really important for me to see.

And this brings me to Monday, the day I was able to get some sight seeing in.  I decided I would start out at the farthest bus stop from my hotel and work my way back.  So the first things I saw were the Library of Congress and the Capitol building.  Travis wanted me to make a point of going to the Library of Congress, so I did.  The building was beautiful.  I made the mistake of joining a tour group, but luckily I was able to sneak away after about half an hour.  The tour guide was full of interesting information, but it was just taking too long and there was a lot of standing in one place and listening to her talk.  After half an hour, I decided I had to go my own way.  Outside the Library of Congress you can see the Capitol building, so I took a few pictures of it, but made the executive decision not to go inside the Capitol.  I thought I was spending too much time in this one place, which probably turned out not to be the case, but I made the best decision I could at the time.

Here’s a cool statue outside the Library of Congress and the Capitol.

After I finished at the Library of Congress and the Capitol, I got back on the Metro and headed for the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum.  I feel like this museum is probably the one I think of when I think of the Smithsonian museums, and I think I can blame this on media.  Anyway, it is definitely a very cool museum documenting flight from the very first flying machines and airplanes all the way through space travel.  There was a really cool display documenting all the Apollo missions which was connected to an art gallery with paintings depicting the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.  I have definitely always had a fascination with flying, probably in part spurred on by my dad.  One of his favorite things to say is, “I love space!”  He also used to have a bowling ball bag with the Apollo 11 patch on it.  Also, as an undergraduate I did research for NASA, which has added to my fascination with flying in general.  I also one day hope to get my pilot’s licence.  Anyway, all this to say that the Air & Space museum was pretty awesome and pretty crowded.

When I left the Air & Space museum, I was on the National Mall and had a nice view of the Washington Monument in the distance.  In the picture on the right you can also make out the Smithsonian castle on the left side of the picture.  I didn’t make it to the castle because I was on the other side of the mall and decided I didn’t want to walk across to it.  I was getting pretty hot and sweaty by the time I made it up to where I would have crossed to the castle.  I have to say that DC got pretty hot.  While the temperatures were about 10 degrees cooler than we’ve been having in Austin, DC was much more humid than it has been here.  Anyway, the Washington Monument, WWII Monument and the Lincoln Memorial beat out the Smithsonian castle for my attention and time.  OK, now to get back on track.  I left the Air & Space museum and decided I wanted to get to the Natural History Museum, probably the second most recognizable Smithsonian museum in my mind.  Well, going back to my map reading skills, I got a little bit off track and found my way to some art museum.  There was a cool sculpture out front of the museum, but it wasn’t what I was looking for.  At this point I figured out where I had gone wrong and where I needed to go, so I decided to walk through the art museum to get some relief from the heat.  Since I didn’t really know what this place was and had some places that I really wanted to see, I just walked straight through the middle of the museum.  It was very nice to be in air conditioning and there were some nice paintings, but I really didn’t take the time to appreciate any of them.  I had one mission at this time and one mission only, to get to the Natural History museum.  That was my focus.

So I finally get to the Natural History museum and it was extremely crowded.  Probably even more crowded than the Air & Space museum was, at least near the entrance and in the first floor exhibits.  Some of the second floor exhibits were much less crowded.  There was one exhibit about dirt and soil that was pretty empty, but there wasn’t as much cool stuff there.  At least not the skeletons of ancient dinosaurs or stuffed lions.  There is so much beautiful stuff in the museum and fascinating things to look at.  I’ve put my three favorite pictures from the Natural History museum here for your viewing pleasure.  I took a few more and of course saw a lot more.  I think that the best way to get a feel for the museum is to just go and see it in person.  There’s not really much that can take the place of going to the museums in person.

When I left the Natural History Museum, I started walking in the direction of the Washington Monument and stopped off at the American History Museum which is right next to the Natural History Museum.  I didn’t get to see all of the American History Museum, but it might have been my favorite of all the museums I went into.  For those of you who didn’t know (like me) they have the flag that inspired our national anthem at the American History Museum.  Unfortunately they do not allow you to take pictures in the exhibit, but it was very moving.  In general I wouldn’t consider myself, extremely patriotic, at least on a daily basis.  Don’t get me wrong, I am very proud to be an American and consider myself very lucky to be able to live in this country.  I just think there are a lot of people more patriotic than myself.  Anyway, the point of this tangent is that I was brought to tears by the flag exhibit.  To think of that part of our nation’s history and about F. Scott Fitzgerald looking at the flag and writing the lyrics of a song that has come to mean so much to our country can make anyone extremely patriotic.  This is another thing that I think everyone needs to go see.  If you are in Washington, DC this is one thing I would say you can’t pass up.  Also in the American History museum was an exhibit of the history of science in America.  This was, of course, very appealing to me.  There was a lot of chemistry in this exhibit.  It was cool to see some of the older equipment used by chemists a hundred years ago.  There was also this crazy looking monkey that I had to take a picture of.  And then there was an exhibit showing the synthesis of nylon.  And we all know that Nylon has changed our society in more ways than one.  I mean, what would we do without pantyhose?  Especially that control-top kind?    I also got to see Julia Child’s kitchen.  This was kind of cool, but I’ve never really been a Julia Child fan.  I did see the movie Julie & Julia, so it was nice to see something in real life that was in a movie.  Of course if you are a big Julia Child fan, I would definitely recommend going to see her kitchen.  Another exhibit I really liked was the exhibit documenting the Manhattan Project.  So pretty much the American History Museum had the most interesting exhibits for me.  Now if I go to these museums again it is very possible that another museum would be my favorite.  I definitely didn’t see everything there was to see in each museum and they all definitely had exhibits that I found very entertaining and interesting.  I would definitely recommend anyone who is able to to go to the Smithsonian museums.  I wish I would have had more time to go to more of them, but the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial were calling my name.

So I left the American History Museum and headed toward the Washington Monument.  The Washington Monument is amazing to see in person.  I don’t think I ever really comprehended how tall it was from the pictures I’ve seen or from the video I’ve seen on TV or in the movies.  It is in a beautiful setting and the only thing that does it justice is to actually see it in person.  It was just amazing.  Behind the Washington Monument you can find the WWII Memorial.  I really wanted to be able to see this since my grandfather was a WWII vet.  The monument was beautiful with a huge fountain in the middle.  The walls of the monument are covered with quotes about the war and the women left at home.  This was a very powerful monument for me.  When you walk out of the WWII Memorial, you are at the opposite end of the reflecting pond from the Lincoln Memorial.  The reflecting pond is huge.  I knew it was big, but once again, I was struck by how big.  I took pictures from both ends of the pond to remind myself how big it was.

The Lincoln Memorial looks pretty small from the other end of the pool and the Washington Monument looks tiny from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  But when you walk from one to the other you realize how large they both are.

The Lincoln Memorial was also fabulous.  It was very crowded like just about everything else, but people were all very respectful.

Once I left the Lincoln Memorial I decided it was time to try and find the White House.  I mean, you can’t go to Washington, DC without seeing the White House, can you?  It took me a little while to figure out how to get there, but I finally did and was able to take the standard White House picture.

At this point I was pretty exhausted and was ready to call it a day, so I headed to the Metro station and went back to my hotel.  I needed to cool off and relax before dinner.  I had plans that night to meet one of our friends from Austin who recently moved to Washington, DC for work.  It was great to be able to catch up with an old friend.

Tuesday I spent most of the day at the ACS meeting once again.  I was able to attend some sessions about the job hunt process and preparing a resume that will help you stand out to employers.  Very valuable information.  Tuesday night I just took it easy in my hotel room since I was leaving Washington on Wednesday.  My travel home was quite an adventure.  First of all, we sat in our plane on the runway in DC for about 45 minutes while they re-routed the plane to avoid some bad whether.  That put us getting into Charlotte about an hour late.  This was not really good for me since I only had about an hour layover to begin with.  Luckily I didn’t miss my connection in Charlotte to Austin, but we did sit on the runway again in Charlotte for half an hour before we finally took off.  And while we were sitting on the runway, there was a screaming baby in the seat behind me.  Incidents like that make me think there should be a minimum age for children on an airplane.  Like they should be at least three years old or something.  Anyway, this baby behind me was screaming so loud that he got at least two other babies on the plane crying too.  It was pretty awful, but I made it home to Austin in one piece and only about 15 minutes later than scheduled.

Wow, this post has been really long so thanks for sticking around if you’re still reading it.  And finally I have a quick update on our house status.  We will be closing Wednesday morning at 10am and officially moving in this Saturday.  We are very excited to get this all finished and have been very blessed by so many people offering to help us move.  Yesterday we were even given a refrigerator!  How fabulous is that?  A free refrigerator!  Travis and I definitely have some of the best friends in the world and are very blessed with a fabulous Christian family here in Austin.  I’m going to try to get some pictures of the house up pretty quickly after we get in, so stay tuned for that.

I’m Still Here August 21, 2009

It’s been a while since I posted, and I wanted to let everyone know that I’m still here. I’ve been pretty busy this month getting ready for the conference I just got back from. Anyway, I promise a longer post tomorrow complete with a full report (and pictures) of my time in Washington DC and an update on our house status. We close in less than a week!

Happy Friday everyone!!

It’s exceedingly hot in Austin… August 5, 2009

In fact last month was officially the hottest month on record.  ever.  And now Lake Travis is at its 3rd lowest level. ever.   So far we’ve had 45 100 degree days and had 12 days of record heat, but that’s not really what I want to talk about.  I think the heat might be making the squirrels crazy… OK probably not the heat, but anyway…

This morning on my walk from the bus stop to Welch hall I noticed something interesting as I passed a trash can.  A white paper bag was coming out of the trash can, which I thought was odd since usually people like to put trash IN the trash can.  Well, it turns out that some lucky squirrel decided to have someone’s leftover Chick-Fil-A for his breakfast this morning.  The bag looked to be pretty full, whether or not it was full of food, I will never know.  I didn’t actually see the squirrel get into it, but I’m hoping he did.  Once he got the bag out of the trash can, he proceeded to circle the bag and every once in a while run up to it and attempt to get in it.  It was pretty amusing.

Now those of you who have been on a college campus in the past few years have probably seen many similar scenes play out.  In my experience, squirrels on college campuses are all tend to be a little on the crazy side.  That said, when I think of some of the things I’ve seen squirrels do, it makes me smile and/or laugh.  So I thought I’d share my morning squirrel experience with you all to maybe bring back humorous memories of your own, or just be slightly amused by my squirrel story.  Or maybe you just needed to waste some time and I’ve provided you an avenue to do that.  Either way, I hope you find something to laugh at today. 

2 Years Down…Many more to come! July 29, 2009

Yesterday was Travis and my’s (not too sure this is really a word, but go with it…) two year anniversary.  We cheated a little bit and celebrated a little early this year with a trip to a bed and breakfast in Fredericksburg two weekends ago.  We had a fabulous time.  It was very relaxing and a very much needed break for both of us.  (Even though we had just gotten back from our trip to Branson, so we’d really been on vacation the week before.)  Anyway, the B & B was a great way to spend our anniversary.  Then Monday night we went to see Iron & Wine and Glen Hansard at the Paramount here in Austin and that was great fun.  Finally, yesterday we celebrated by ordering delivery from Jason’s Deli and sharing a bottle of Prosecco.  We were both pretty beat yesterday evening.  This week Travis is having band camp for his BCS kiddos and I just had a long day yesterday…kind of like today.  I can’t believe it’s been two amazing years since we got married.  The time has flown by.  I can’t wait to see what is in store for us in the next 20 years.  I’m sure we’re going to have a blast.

We did have another major event yesterday as well…We bought a house!  We are so excited to be homeowners.  Everything looks like it will go smoothly and we should close on the house near the end of August.  It was quite an adventure getting our offer accepted and the people selling the house seem slightly crazy to us, but hopefully now it will be smooth sailing.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Read Anything Good Lately? July 7, 2009

If you haven’t, you should check out the blog I’ve started for my book club. You can see a list of all the books we’ve read plus posts about authors, book series, etc. And even some bonus material such as posts on music.

Also, Travis and I will be heading up to Branson on Friday to spend some time with his family.  So make sure to check back here for updates from out of town.

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring July 1, 2009

Austin has been in a severe drought for most of this year.  I think the only day we weren’t below the normal rainfall level was probably Jan. 1, but that’s not exactly the point of this post.  And we actually have had some rain the past couple of days.  Yesterday I thought I was going to have to swim to Welch once I got off the bus, and I was very thankful for the spare set of clothes I keep at my desk in case of emergency.  I had to use my spare pair of jeans, but again, I digress.  While the city of Austin is in a severe drought, the McDevitt labs seem to have an abundance of water…in places we don’t really want it.  So as many of you probably know, my adviser just moved to Rice.  In preparation for that move we had to go through all of our lab space and figure out what he was taking and what he was leaving.  Then we had to clean everything he was moving.  Besides being tedious, you’d think this process wouldn’t be too bad.  And for the most part that was the case.  The tricky part comes in when you’re trying to disassemble a fancy instrument that needs to have oil drained or is connected to a water supply for some reason.  This becomes especially tricky when this is an instrument that you’ve never touched before in your life.  All that said, we’ve had two incidents of leaking water in our labs the past few days.  The first was not really a big deal, just a small drip leaving a puddle on the floor.  Pretty easy to clean up and fix.  The second incident happened today.  There was a guy in our lab taking out some sort of pump when the flood gates opened.  As he was disconnecting it the water line it was connected to, which appeared to be turned off, began flooding the lab.  This wouldn’t have been too much of a problem except the water line was coming from the ceiling and right next to Alexis’s desk.  It was also right above a table so that when it came down it splashed everywhere.  Needless to say half of Alexis’s desk was covered with water, not to mention her computer and keyboard.  Luckily the interior of the computer stayed dry and only the casing really got wet.  Her keyboard is another story though.  We’ll have to wait and see if it survived the next time Alexis tries to use her computer.  Luckily we found the shut off valve pretty quickly and were able to clean up the mess in about half an hour.  Nothing was ruined and we’ve been able to have a pretty normal afternoon around here post-flood.  So the moral of the story is: When disconnecting fancy instruments make sure that all water valves are properly shut off before removing their connections.  And it would be helpful if you’d actually used the instrument before.  I hope everyone reading this is staying dry, especially when you’re inside.    And Happy July!! 

Home Alone June 29, 2009

We’ve come to that time of summer that I really don’t look forward to every year.  Travis is gone for AT.  AT meaning annual training for the Guard band.  It’s not quite as bad as it could be since he’s been here the past week and a half since their duty has been in Austin, but now they are in Brownsville for a week.    That means that I get to entertain myself for the week.  I’m sure I’ll find something to occupy my time and hopefully the week will go by quickly.  My brother is supposed to come visit sometime later this week, so that should give me plenty to do.  Also I’m making breakfast for my book club on Saturday, so that will take some planning.  No matter what I’m in for a week with no husband which is not exciting.

Losing It June 24, 2009

At least I’m trying to. Over the past two years, since Travis and I have been married, I’ve gained quite a bit of weight, and now I’m really getting serious about losing it. I’ve been trying to eat better foods than I have in the past and eat less as well as working out daily. Theoretically I can reach my weight loss goal by mid-October, so here’s hoping I don’t fall off the wagon like I usually do. Over the past two weeks I’ve been counting calories and trying to keep up my workout schedule. I’ve done pretty well so far with only a few days taken off of working out. One thing I’ve found pretty helpful in this effort of mine is this blog set up by a friend of mine from high school and a couple of her co-workers/friends. They are all working to lose weight before a vacation they have planned and have also wagered a pair of designer jeans.  It’s always helpful to remember that there are plenty of other people out there struggling just like you are.  Anyway, my mission for the moment is to lose all my excess weight between now and October.  Wish me luck!

On another note, Travis and I have a pretty exciting July coming up.  We’ll be heading to Branson to visit Carrie, Lincoln and Beckam (my sister-in-law & her family), spending a weekend at a B & B in Fredericksburg, and going to see Iron & Wine and Glen Hansard at the Paramount.  June has been pretty boring for me so I’m looking forward to July.  Travis has been having fun playing army the past week and he’ll be doing that for the next couple of weeks.  You can see some pictures of his adventure here.

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Have a great week!

Summertime June 10, 2009

So unlike most people, I have to say that summer is probably my least favorite season.  While it’s definitely great that Travis doesn’t have to teach and I get a small break from the college kids and the lab is a little more relaxed, I’m still working pretty much everyday.  Also, it gets incredibly hot here in Austin.  I used to try and go to the pool and read, but most of the time it’s still too hot to just sit outside and read.  I get way too hot and covered in sweat just laying on a pool chair, not cool…not cool at all.  Now you might say, you’re right next to the pool, just jump in a cool off for a bit.  That’s all fine and great until it becomes necessary to jump in the pool every ten minutes.  I can’t get in quality reading time and I have to keep jumping in the pool.  And those of you that know me well, know I don’t like swimming, so continually jumping into a pool just so I’m not melting away from the heat is not my idea of a good time.  Plus I burn pretty easily so all those jumps in the pool require a ton of reapplications of sun block, again not fun.

Then, as a result of the hot weather, girls take that as a sign they don’t need to wear appropriate clothing.  Just this morning I was walking across campus to my office when I passed a girl wearing a shirt as a dress.  It barely covered what needed to be covered and I’m not sure how she planned to sit down and remain covered.  Not to mention all the girls that walk across campus in their teeny tiny bakinis.  I’m not at a pool, I don’t want to see that.

Luckily we haven’t made it to 100 degrees yet, but I have a feeling we’ll get there by the end of the week.  The weather people are putting the expected high at 99 for pretty much the rest of the week.  I’m thinking that means we’ll get to 100.  And the relief we get overnight, lows are predicted to be 77 all week long.  So basically we’re looking at temperatures between 80 and 100 during functional hours of the day, boo!  I prefer temperatures outside to peak at 80.  I definitely live in the wrong city for that.

Anyway, enough complaining about summer.  I’ll end this post with a few pics of some of the kiddos I supervise in our church’s nursery.  I think these kids are the highlight of most of my weeks.  They are so cute!