Scientists Love Pyrex Too!

...And I am not referring to my love for Pyrex or my current occupation.

Today, when I was doing some testing in the lab, I looked at my beakers and they were all Pyrex! I exhaled with a smile of satisfaction. I knew there was a reason why I looked so good in that sterile white lab coat, and rocked those blue Laytex gloves so well...Scientists love Pyrex too!

THANK YOU FOR THE WONDERFUL GIFTS!

F-A-M-I-L-Y

As I have grown older I have realized how important my family is to me. Now, when I come home, I spend all of my time with my family, and I still feel like it's not enough. I love and laugh every second that I am with them that before I know it, my time is up...tomorrow morning my time is up. I wish so badly that the Seattle airport suddenly closes and I am stuck in Texas for a couple of more days...or even a few hours...I will take what I can get.

For those of you who don't know, my whole extended family is in Texas, all of it, every bit of it, so when I come home, it's like a family reunion and I love it. I always, without fail, seem to have adventure after adventure with them.

Examples:

1) I sneaked Mr. Beyonce to Texas. My parents gladly took him in as part of the family, and let me just tell you, the dogs love him. I took him Christmas shopping, and my mom created poses for the pony...Imri, you would be so proud.
2) While doing aforementioned Christmas shopping, a large, tall man almost fell on me. Yes, he fell almost directly on top of me. My mom laughed, and explained it was because he could not see me. She always finds a way to remind me of my height.
3) While trying to find a gift for my stepsister, we approach the hair curler stand to browse. While deciding on a gift for her, the salesman took my hair and curled it. My face cringed and my mom laughed, and the salesman was left confused. Later, when we returned to by her gift, he remembered us because of my hatred to have my hair touched. We laughed...
4) Receiving the most beautiful painting from my brother. Seriously, amazingly talented. I wish I could have half the talents he has.
5) Talking current events and politics with my dad. It's a favorite past time, and it gives me motivation to constantly keep up with the news.
6) Bowling with my dad. I try to down play my competitiveness, but when I play a game with my dad and my brother it just comes out. We all come by honestly in our family. It will be the lowest scoring bowling game, but probably the highest competitive game you will ever see.
7) Christmas Eve at my Aunt's. Ever since I was little, my German side of the family has always gotten together for this holiday. I've always looked forward to it and I still do. We all dress up in Sunday dress, and celebrate this holiday with one another. When I was younger, my cousins and I would sing Christmas carols to entertain the adults. Now, we sit at the adult table, and we try and get my cousins' sons to say cute, quirky phrases that won't get us into too much children.
7b) As an addendum to the previously mentioned Christmas Eve, I need to add that I love cuddling with my cousins' children. They are the closest I have to nephews. In fact, I feel as though they are such. I just felt this needed its own bullet.
8) Christmas day at my mom's. We open presents...take a family photo with all of our gifts...then chow down on pancakes and bacon.
9) Christmas day at my Gran's. This list is endless of things I love. Seeing all of my family, especially my Gran and Grandpa. Seeing Tooter, their dog, and exploring my grandpa's pigeon barns. I do this every year, and every time its like I have never seen them before. I love it. I love eating all of her delicious cooking to the point that we all pass out, and before my Gran knows it, she was 30 people passed out throughout her house. I love eating the homemade chocolate chip pecan cookies. I LOVE playing Mexican train dominoes. If you want to see me get super competitive then play this game with me. This game is known to cause some people to drop some swear words. I especially love getting teased by my grandpa that I cheat...I don't...at least not any more...
10) I love going on walks with my mom. Looking at all the animals in her neighborhood, and teasing a longhorn that almost took me out.
11) I LOVE parties with my family. Last night we celebrated my Aunt Joy's 54th birthday. Her friends threw her a surprise party. We all danced and sang along with the band. Sometimes singing with our eyes closed. I love my cousin Perry. I love all the trouble we used cause when we were kids. I love how we have become adults together and now getting ready for new chapters in our lives. I love awkward situations, where people ask if I am my dad's girlfriend...and I have to tell them that I am actually his daughter...but dancing with my grandparents and my aunts with my eyes closed was probably the best part. I know now where I get my moves from.
12) I love that my dad loves to BBQ. Yesterday he smoked some ribs for us, and they were phenomenal.
13) I love that I get to see my Oma today, and that she made me some home streudal for me to take back to Seattle with me.

I LOVE MY FAMILY. We laugh, we cry, but most importantly we have an unconditional love for one another. I am learning how to love through them. Thank you family. You are too good to me.

Texas2Step -- Extended Cut

Seattle freaks out when it snows. This is both good and bad:

Good: Snow days from work (aka, working from home, but working in PJ's is a dream come true).
Bad: Flying home (aka, driving in a city where there are limited snow plows and people have never driven in snow before, flights being delayed, etc.).

The result:

9 hours of traveling and 1 giant zit later...


I tried to take a second to hide the bugger on my face, but it was just too big to hide...oh well...


But in the end the zit is worth it: 66 degree weather when I landed, 70 degrees tomorrow...man I love Texas.

The Magician

Ever since the big market crash in September, a lot of people have been asking, "How does all this money just disappear?" Well, if you would like to learn how to make larges sums of money disappear, just ask him.

He made $50 billion disappear. He must be a magician, with A LOT of apprentices.

Christmas Miracles in Pictures

Sometimes they really should make movies....here is what you missed...

Fancy reception room...

I mean...who could deny these boys sportin' these amazing threads??

Uh-MAZE-ing!

John...just hittin up da' bar like it ain't no thing...

Yes, Yes, Yes.

My favorite entrance photo.

Wendy always makes me look good. Thank you!

The Belle of the Ball.

Four years have gone by way too fast.

Dinner party shenanigans...

Love this...

Dear Mom,

If it's Wednesday...I hope you are reading this...I hope you like it.

Love you and see you tomorrow.

xoxo
erin.leigh

Miracle on 6th Ave

This year's ugly Christmas sweater party was planned to be held at my house. I have been very excited about the holiday season this year. I think this may be because I am no longer in retail, so the holiday season doesn't mean grumpy customers, but a time to enjoy one another's company. Yesterday, I started slaving away in the kitchen creating cheese balls, chocolate covered pretzels, homemade eggnog and cider. It has been quite a delight, but early yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from a friend and he gave me a Christmas miracle. His work Christmas party was canceled, but they had already paid for room and dinner, so instead of letting it go to waste, the gave it to me....TO ME!!! Free of charge!

We had it at the downtown Sheraton Hotel:


We began in a reception room were hors d'oeuvres were served, and there was a bartender to refil us on all of our root beer. Following the reception room, we entered into a dining room:



Here, waitors gave us the choice of steak, salmon and vegetarian cuisine (rumor has it they ran about $50/plate). Afterwards, we had dessert and hot cocoa. Do not fret, the standards of this party were not compromised. There were about 50-60 young single adults wandering this fancy hotel in our ugly christmas sweaters, with white elephant gifts in hand.

Did I mention we were on the third floor, with a view and it was snowing? It really was a Christmas miracle....

...Pictures documenting this magical night are soon to come!

8/7 CST

This Thursday, I will be boarding a plane to Texas. Often times, "I think to myself what on earth took me to Seattle?" To keep this short: When I move back to Texas (emphasis on the "when"), I will never move again. So, I thought I would get a few last adventures out of me before I move back.

I have had a few posts in the past about how great Texas is, and today is going to be another one. I remember when I was a kid and TV shows were advertised they were listed as "8/7 Central" or "4/3 Central," you get the idea. I remember wondering how other people survived, because everything was broadcasted as central standard time. Still, even in Seattle it is broadcasted as such.

Anyways, I laughed to myself today, as I remembered my young, Texas elitist thoughts, and I thought I would share it. Another reason why Texas is great. It's minor, but even the details count.

$18.36

That's how much it cost me to fill up my tank today with Mid-Grade. Can you believe it? When I first pulled up, I took note of the competing adjacent Shell station, with the one across the street being .05 more per gallon for regular gas. I thought about how ridiculous the difference in price was for the same gas, but people would pay no attention, because they are both strategically "conveniently" placed for its consumers. Then when I arrived to my station, I realized that they were out of regular. I sighed...and then begrudgingly began to fill up my tank with mid-grade. It didn't even cost more than $20 for my 10-gallon tank.

This idea should make me happy, but instead it made me uneasy, and distrust the oil industry even more. This is another for sure way to get consumers to get all comfy with their fuel consuming car again, so that when the new admin enters to create new regulations for such gas guzzlers people will be in an uproar. Well guess what...I WILL NOT BE A PAWN IN THAT GAME....but in the mean time my struggling, recession-victim bank account will love the pennies I save with gas right now.

Now, please lower the cost of diesel so my food can be cheaper please? Wendy's is raising the price of their dollar menu...to...GASP...$1.29. That's enough for me to not eat there (Not that I really do anymore, but I forgot my lunch today and $1 buys me more there than at the grocery store...another sore topic I will discuss another day).

The moral of the story: Gas has gone down, and .29 makes a big difference.

Why the dead should never do duets with the living...

The result of such an action is this:

When I found this, it suddenly became a sad, sad day for me. If you know me personally, you now that I have a deep love for Elvis, and I have been listening to his Christmas album nonstop. When I found out there was a Christmas duets CD out, I excitedly looked up the album's track list, which ended up including duets like this:

BOO!!! I am sure Elvis is rolling over in his grave. I am losing sleep at night over this. CHRISTMAS IS RUINED!!! It did not work for Natalie and her father, so it most assuredly is not going to work for you. Sorry.
Dear Santa,
Please make over rated, sold out country artists stop using the dead to help them get further in life, which ultimately results in a terrible album. Thank you in advance!

XOXO,
Erin.Leigh

"25% less fat than pure, natural cheese..."

I heard that in a commercial last night for Kraft's new 2% cheese. There are so many things wrong in that one simple statement. The main problem being that it is suggesting that we as a society prefer less fat, than things that are natural. Awesome. I mean, Kraft doesn't really naturally imply natural or healthy, but should we really concern ourselves with having chemically altered food in order to lose weight?

I believe that we are all aware that in recent years I have acquired my childhood taste for milk, but not just any milk...whole milk. Please, don't gasp, I know that it's a faux pas. But, please, here me out. Whole milk, in all of its fatty glory, is a complete food, which means that if its reduced to a 1% or Skim milk, and the fat is removed, then our bodies will not be able to digest the protein and absorb the calcium from this yummy drink. Plus, another study showed that women who drank Whole milk lost 15%-30% more weight over time than women who drank others.

I know, this is an odd soap box to get on, but I have been passionate about our food and where we get it from...and this ad I saw last night was a perfect example of where our society is headed.

In other news...

This man passed away:

Though his loss is one that I will miss, he is such a perfect example of a life well lead. He lived a long life, in which he strived to serve those around him. I hope that one day, when it is my time, I will be as ready as he was.