Month: July 2011

The trunkful of Booze – a family tradition?

Been over a week since I last posted, and with judiang posting almost daily on her WordPress blog of late, she’s making me look bad. So, now that LJ has calmed down a little, I can finish talking about my Organic Chemistry Vacation. (Might as well post about it since this past week wasn’t near as interesting.)

After my boozy Wednesday, Thursday was fairly uneventful. I had supper from that famous French Restaurant, Kroger. I had le fried chicken, le baba ganoush a la whole clove garlic bread, le pistachios, and le brownie. (The joy of buying supper from a grocery – you can combine all sorts of things in one meal!)

Friday was our last class. Kate got us conversant enough in benzene ring chemistry, and then we filled out our evaluations. I had nothing but praise for her – she was a fabulous teacher. And then it was off to Opie Taylor’s for lunch and then Oliver Wineries for a tour.

Kate was kind enough to drive me to the restaurant and winery since I wanted to return to campus before leaving. The restaurant was a bar with decent enough bar food. I had half a Reuben and onion rings. Oh, and a cup (very small one) of chicken noodle soup with really thick (and tasty) noodles.

Oliver Winery is the first winery that appeared in Indiana. The grounds are beautiful with lots of flowers. And when we got into the sales area, I saw the cutest little bottles and went right over to them. To discover that they weren’t wine bottles at all, but hard CIDER!

Two of the class had left by the time we gathered at the winery, so when we got on one of the tours, the poor tour guide had 9 chemists in amongst the non-chemists. I think we got him too flustered with our questions. He definitely forgot to show us the video on bottling that they usually show their tours. But he was nice enough to take a group photo of us.

After the tour, those of us who were left bellied up to the bar and tasted what Oliver had to offer. So of course, I tried the ciders. I tried the three flavored ciders (peach, raspberry, and strawberry) and then a Gewurztraminer. I liked the ciders pretty well but couldn’t remember if the Gewurz was something mom would like or not. So I got her a Riesling and dad a Shiraz and me a case of Cider.

Kate brought me back to where my car was parked on campus, and I put the first bit of booze into my trunk. But I had plans for more. See, I was channeling my great grandfather Lowry that day. He was a brew master, and would sometimes get called away to a brewery in Indiana (for example) to help them out with a problem. And when he would get ready to return home, the grateful brewers would load his trunk up with beer and fill the empty spaces with single bottles of liquor.

So I headed next to Kroger (where I had gotten supper the night before) because I wanted to buy some Upland beer for dad to try. And when I asked him what he’d like in addition to the wheat beer, I mentioned that they had a nifty Fat Tire display at the store. “They have Fat Tire? Well, get some of that!” was his response. So I picked up a 6-pack of Upland Wheat, a 6-pack of Upland Amber, and a 12-pack of Fat Tire. Those went into my trunk as well.

But I wasn’t done yet! My goal was to head to Trader Joe’s on my way home. It was only slightly off the beaten path on my way home (in Indianapolis), so I had a list of things to buy for me, for mom, and for dad. And dad’s requests were all wine. So after a supper of Pad Thai at a Thai place that happened to be in the strip mall where the Trader Joe’s was, I picked up a dozen bottles of wine and plenty of nuts (for mom and for me) and added those to the trunk.

My trunk wasn’t as full as great grandpa Lowry’s was, but it still had more booze in it than it’s ever had before. I had dad take photos when I dropped the booze off the next day. I’ll have to get the pix from him so I can show y’all.

Hello, I’m drinking a beer!

People may be surprised to learn that today I had a BEER with my lunch! OK, so I only got a 12oz (since they didn’t have half-pints), but it was a real beer, not a malted beverage (Mike’s Hard Lemonade) or hard cider.

Kate, our instructor, wanted to have at least one field trip where we got to see one of the local industries at work. Her original plan to get us into one of the pharma companies fell through despite her starting on it over a month ago. So she came up with a tour of Upland Brewing Co. which is located in Bloomington.

So after our morning lesson (where one of the chemistry librarians showed us around the online chem library – excellent resource!), we headed off to Upland for lunch and then our tour. Kate drove those of us staying on campus, but everyone else drove themselves.

For lunch, I ordered the fish & chips and, after Kevin let me sample his beer, I also got a beer: Upland’s Weizen. Although the taste itself wasn’t all that, I liked the yeasty aftertaste. (I think I’m supposed to use “finish” instead of “aftertaste.”)

Once again, Kate was overly generous and bought our lunches (she rocks, you know). And then we headed off to the brewery section to have our tour. Photography was allowed, so photograph I did! Visit my gallery for a detailed tour of Upland Brewing Co. Very educational and informative. And Kate even managed to relate it to stuff we’d been talking about in class. Great day!

Fun with Grignard Reagents

Second week of Survey of Organic Chemistry and I’m still having fun and learning lots. Hotter’n Hell with more hotter to come, however. The only drawback, IMO.

This weekend, I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (or as I call it HP7.2) with the folks. We all agreed the movie was great. And it had my favorite scene from the book in it. (I have an LJ icon that spoils it, if you want to hunt for it.) The audience actually cheered when the scene occurred, myself included. Our only drawback was having to sit in the front row to see it.

On Sunday, I headed to mom & dad’s before I left for Indiana in order to catch the Women’s World Cup Final. Mom and I sat and watched and cheered (and sighed) as the game progressed and went into extra time. So I wound up heading to uni later than I’d intended. Picked up a Filet o’ Fish & large fries from Maccas on the way (bad me).

Yesterday I went to The Laughing Planet Cafe, a local restaurant that serves interesting burritos. I ordered the Pestato with basil pesto and it was yummy. And for supper, I hung around on campus for a while reading, and then went to Hartzell’s Ice Cream for a Blizzard-like item with chocolate soft serve, Reese cups, and peanut butter. Very yummy, but it didn’t last the whole 25 (hot hot hot) minute walk back to the dorm.

Today for lunch, I went to Basil Leaf Vietnamese Bistro. I ordered the Vietnamese salad, which according to the menu is “lemongrass grilled with spring roll served over soft rice vermicelli noodles, fresh bean sprouts, basil/mint, carrot, lettuce and crushed peanuts.” I had it with pan fried tofu and it was very yummy (though the mint leaves were overpowering and I took the last few out).

After lunch was lab. Once again, long jeans & closed-toed shoes made for hot walking outside, but are very important for lab safety. Our task today was to make a Grignard reagent (an organometallic compound that makes for a negative carbon and is great for making C-C bonds. We used it to make either Crystal Violet or Malachite Green (both dyes, among their other uses). Our group was going to make Crystal Violet but nearly everyone else was too, so we made Malachite Green instead.

It was pretty neat. We tried to be as anhydrous as possible since water reacts with the Grignard agent even more readily than the organic compound we were using. And our instructor told us that the reaction works better if you speak with a French accent. My partner and I opted to not do this, but wound up with the reaction working fine. However, there was a group who wound up not making a dye at all. Still, we had enough of the two dyes to do some tie-dying afterward. I tie-dyed two socks (one in each) and my fingers. And now, apparently, am dying the bathroom counter here in the dorm. Oops!

Here’s a photo of my dye-job (which doesn’t look as nice as it did earlier today):


Malachite Green and Crystal Violet socks (with multi-fiber samples beside them).

Tonight I had yogurt & granola for supper (yay for my cooler) and then went off to see HP7.2 for a second time. This audience weren’t quite as appreciative of my favorite scene, but they’re from Indiana – what do you expect? 😉

Recrystallizing can be a be-yatch

I’m sitting in my library in the comfy chair with Linus sprawled on my lap and Lucy sleeping on my headrest. I suspect the little ones missed me while I was away re-learning organic chemistry. Don’t worry, babies, only one more week of classes!

As an adjunct professor for Indiana University thanks to ACP (Advance College Project), I can take classes at IU for free. And the chemistry department offered a 2-week survey of organic chemistry with us ACP teachers in mind. So I figured, free graduate credits that would be useful and accomplished quickly? Hell yah!

Well… it would be free if I didn’t live 3 hours from the Bloomington campus. So I have decided that my big summer trip is to take this class. The dorm room rang up to over $500. There’s a $120 tech fee/lab fee that won’t be reimbursed. And 12 hours of driving for the course = gas expenses. Oh, and going out to eat daily doesn’t help.

Other than the fact that the dorms were air conditioned (woohoo) I knew nothing about them. Fridge? Microwave? Towels? Well, turned out towels were provided, but the rooms have no fridges. (There’s a microwave for the floor that I could use, however.) In anticipation of no fridges, I brought my cooler and some milk and yogurt. And it wasn’t until midweek after I purchased a bag of ice that I discovered the ice machine on the ground floor of the dorm. Heh.

The course has been great. Kate Reck is the instructor and she’s the one who trained us at the ACP training in June. There are 10 of us students but I’m the only newbie to ACP. A few of the students took Kate’s class that she offered last summer on analytical chemistry. I’m relearned a lot, and there are things I’m pretty sure that I’m learning for the first time.

I already talked about our first lab. We do labs on Tues & Thurs (and need long pants – it’s bloody hot this week and will be hotter next!) Our Thursday lab was on extraction and recrystallization. We were given a container with three unknowns – an impurity to be filtered out, an organic base, and an organic neutral substance.

We dissolved the compounds in diethylether and then filtered out the charcoal. Next, we added sodium hydroxide to make the acid soluble in water and used a separatory funnel to separate the two solutions. The neutral compound was separated from the ether by a rotovap (nifty device that evaporates volatile solvents by spinning & using a vacuum), which was our second time using it. The acidic solution was returned to an acid, whereby it precipitated out of solution.

We decided to just recrystallize the acidic compound, so my partner, Rich, determined the melting point of our neutral compound. We were just .2°C over the accepted value for naphthalene (which was the correct compound). Meanwhile, I was working on recrystallizing our carboxylic acid. The super saturated solution (I was using ethanol as the solvent) was room temp, so I put it in the ice bath, and it immediately all fell out of solution. Bugger.

No matter, reheating the flask allowed me to redissolve the solution. And this time I went even slower. I was adding cold water to a room temp water bath, when Kate stopped over. She suggested scratching the flask bottom with a scoop, and proceeded to do it. Whereby the crystals came out in a big clump once again. We both about fell over with laughter. (The things that chemists find amusing).

So no idea if we would have gotten the right melting point for our acid. We were basically out of time by then, so my partner and I cleaned up and put our goggles away for another week.

One of my intentions when taking this course was to eat at the nifty ethnic restaurants near campus. Only the weather conspired against me. It was so hot at the start of the week that I went to the student union Mon & Tues. Wednesday, four of us went to Nick’s for lunch, where I had the nicest cheese steak I’d ever had. See, at Nick’s they don’t chop the steak up, it’s just laying on your hoagie. Nice and medium rare and very yummy with the provolone and onions.

Thursday, Kate invited those of us who could to join her and her hubby for supper at their favorite Mexican place for supper. So I had yogurt for lunch and joined Kate, Bill, Marvin, and Kevin at La Torre near the Kroger on College Mall road. I had a combo meal with a carne asada, two chicken flautas, and a spicy chile relleno. Very yummy and excellent company.

And my night life on Thursday wasn’t done yet. It turns out that the Indiana Festival Theater just started their summer run of The Comedy of Errors. So Wednesday night, I purchased a balcony seat for the show. As soon as I’d driven back to the dorm, I walked to the theater and sat in the middle of the balcony to watch the show. It was excellent. The set was tiny, but very fun to look at. The cast did a great job (though both Antipholus’s stumbled on a few lines here & there) and I loved the addition of an accordion player separating the scenes. They had a queen instead of the duke, which was fine too. I laughed a lot (as did the rest of the audience) and enjoyed myself. The walk back to the dorm was also very pleasant.

Today, most of the class went along with Kate to Amol India for Indian Fud. They had a nice buffet and I ate well. And then Kate footed the bill for us! Nice lady! (And a very good teacher, too.)

Class let out a little early today, which allowed me to leave campus a bit earlier and I got home before 7pm. Been hanging out with the kitties most of my time here, downloading free software which I get with my IU ID. Free Adobe CS 5.5, free ChemBioDraw, free Lynda.com (with the exercise files!) It’s all good!

Tomorrow I’m off to watch HP7.2 with the parental units. Am looking forward to this. And I think Sunday I wanna catch some World Cup (I’ve missed most of it this time around, alas). And then Sunday night, back to Indiana!

I can has Limonene?

I was hoping to have the chance to post last night, but I’m still not able to access the WiFi on campus. I spent some time at Panera last night (and some money on supper) in order to get somewhat caught up, but figured I could post when I returned to my dorm. Alas.

Anyhoo, I’m back at Bloomington’s Indiana University campus, staying in a dorm this time (hence the difficulty with the WiFi – the hotel was easy). Today we had our first lab, which meant I had to wear long pants & closed-toed shoes. And it’s f*****’ hot here!

Still, the lab was fun, and we isolated limonene from orange peel using distillation. We then tested it with a polarizer to show that it was a chiral molecule (lemon has the other-handed stereo isomer of limonene in its peel). We were also going to examine it with IR, only the machine was being a butthead. Kate, our instructor, will get us the IR graphs tomorrow from our compiled limonene.

I’m enjoying the organic review (and some may be new stuff, rather than stuff I’ve simply forgotten) and got a lot of the first homework set done last night because I had no Internet to distract me. May have a similar case tonight. At least I purchased the 4-book set of Song of Ice and Fire for my BeBook before I left cuz it’s been a good read. Book 5 not yet available electronically from my library.

I’ll get more details later – not having supper here, gonna have yogurt back at the dorm (provided it isn’t spoiled yet). So guess I’d best upload this & log off.

Happy 4th!

Hope folks who celebrate Independence Day today had a great day! Despite having to leave judiang and elsaf, I had a great day.

Elsa made us French toast today, which was very yummy. She even did fancy-dancy strawberry garnish & powdered sugar. (She made ’em with month-out-of-date milk, but I blame Judi for having month-out-of-date milk in her fridge in the first place! As the three of us aren’t dead, I suspect there was nothing wrong with it after all. But Judi, don’t forget to pitch the milk with the pink label!)

This morning was mostly just getting packed (and discovering stuff I forgot to pack) and reading and watching Harry Potter behind-the-scenes shorts from Judi’s On Demand service. Rather relaxing. Then Elsa and I went to the Little Branch Cafe for lunch. I had an (overpriced) toasted cheese sandwich (with tomato), which was very tasty. Judi joined us briefly, before heading back to get ready for her party.

It was quickly time to part company, however. Elsa drove back to Michigan, Judi took a cab to the train station to get to her 4th of July BBQ, and I walked to the El to get to Midway. Things were smooth getting there and getting through security and I had time to read while awaiting my flight. It left on time, arrived on time, and I wound up sitting in the first row by a window, so I was third off the plane. 44th bag out of the baggage claim, but that’s OK. I had my bag back. I even remembered, sort of, where I parked.

A short stop for Taco Bell on the drive back, and I returned home to discover someone shooting off nice fireworks at the edge of town. They were even visible from my backyard, so I spent some time watching them. They went on for at least 45 minutes (though with pauses between). Top quality fireworks – one step down from what the nearby towns use, I’d say.

The cats are glad I’m back, and I’m glad I’m back with my cats. Thanks, girls, for a great weekend! To friendship! And revenge!

A toast to friends… and revenge!

Today was yet another fun-filled day with my girls, judiang and elsaf. And, as this trip has been, it was another food-filled day. We started at the (last day of the) Taste of Chicago, moved onto Spanish Tapas, and ended with Super 8.

My takings from the Taste:

  • Vegan Samosa from Arya Bhavan

  • Pralines and Cream (ice cream) from Lagniappe-Creole Cajun Joynt

  • Slice of Gluten-Free Pizza from Connie’s Pizza

  • Italian Lemon Ice from Franco’s Ristorante

  • Bourbon Chicken (in a wrap) from Oak Street Beach Cafe

  • Peach Cobbler from BJ’s Market & Bakery

  • Crab Rangoon from the Noodle Vietnamese Cuisine

  • Churro (vanilla filled) from Churro Factory

All of the above were taste portions except the Churro. Elsa, alas, wasn’t feeling hungry, so she gave us her tickets. Judi and I ate like queens. 🙂

Once we returned to Judi’s flat, I headed off to the pool to read. It was chillier than yesterday, but the water was warm still. Once Elsa & Judi joined me, I got in and enjoyed the warm water. Alas, the pool suffered a major child infestation, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.

For supper, Elsa drove us to Tapas Valencia. We had quite a few plates.

  • Salmon Curado – cured salmon with dill sour cream

  • Alchofas con Crema – marinated artichokes with creamy white wine vinaigrette

  • Champinones – stuffed mushroom caps

  • Empanada de Buey – puff pastry filled with beef tenderloin

  • Pato Confitado – duck confit with mushrooms and apples

  • Patatas con Alioli – robust garlic potato salad

  • Gambas al Ajillo – grilled shrimp with garlic lemon butter

  • Crepe Rellena – crepe with goat cheese, spinach, pine nuts and apples

  • Mejillones con Guindillas – fresh black mussels sauteed with guindilla peppers served with a white wine sauce

We did it in three rounds, each picking an item during the round. And then we each picked a dessert. I wound up ordering what I think I ordered the last time Judi and I came here. Crema con Chocolate, which is basically creme brulee with chocolate. All of the food that I ate today was wonderful (except the mussels, but that’s to be expected. I don’t like mussels.)

After a short stop back at the flat, we headed off to see Super 8 at the Icon theater. This place is hoity-toity with VIP films with leather seats. We went to a regular flick, however, but still had reserved seats. Reserved seats! And an air hostess telling how to escape in case of fire and where the oxygen masks drop from. We ain’t got theaters like that in Ohio.

When we got back, Judi, Patty (her Pomeranian) and I took a night time walk around the Field Museum. Patty really enjoyed herself. And so did Judi and I.

Alas, tomorrow, Elsa and I need to have to leave Chicago. I have kitties awaiting my return. But I believe we’ll have a bit more yummy food before the day is over.

Murder for Two

Today was another great day hanging out with judiang and elsaf. We started off with Dim Sum at Three Happiness in Chinatown. Yum!

After we returned from brunch, we went to Judi’s pool and spent some quality time reading & wading. Very relaxing.

But after that, we zipped off to Navy Pier to see a new musical, Murder for Two. It had a cast of thousands played by two men. Well, not thousands, but several. And lots of piano playing. It was quite entertaining, very funny, and the piano playing was brilliant.

After the excellent show, we went to Riva, a hoity-toity seafood place at Navy Pier. Great service, great food, and decadent desserts. I couldn’t make up my mind on what to have, so I had a set of 4 small plates. Grilled shrimp, crab salad, pappadew peppers (blue crab & Brie in peppers & fried in a ball), and artichoke beignet (artichoke & cheese also in a fried ball). All were tasty with the artichoke winning and pepper balls in second place. Then dessert was also a combo – Chocolate Fantasia. This was chocolate gelato, chocolate flour-less cake, and chocolate mousse. All very yummy. And the chocolate ice cream had salt in it just added to the intensity of the flavor. Oh, and I also had a mojito. We won at supper.

We had pondered staying there to watch the Saturday fireworks, but then later decided that seeing them from Museum Campus would be almost as good (and less crowded). So we returned to Judi’s flat and watched another episode of Game of Thrones.

But soon it was time for walking to Museum Park. Judi wanted to make sure I was safe walking in her big city at night, so she came along as my protector. We stopped by the planetarium and waited. The fireworks, as usual, were impressive.

Once we returned home (with a slight detour) we watched another Game of Thrones (5 eps down, but we don’t think we’ll get ’em all watched before we leave Monday).

Yes! We have Whoosh!

It’s a sad state of (geek) affairs when you discover that your friend, who’s in the bedroom just over there, is up because she posts to Twitter… And thus our day began.

judiang, elsaf and I went to the Little Branch Cafe for “a not as expensive as supper” breakfast. I had a breakfast croissant which had egg, cheese, and bacon. It came with a few hashbrowns and some fruit, of which half was melon. I let Judi eat the melon.

After breakfast, I decided to head off on a half hour walk, whereupon I discovered that Judi lives closer to Lake Michigan than I do to the Stillwater River. (Well, I should have figured that since I can see the Lake from her balcony.) It was a pleasant walk (breezy & cloudy) and they’ve really made Museum Campus a lovely place to walk.

Elsa and I then headed off to Whole Paycheck, er, Whole Foods to pick up necessary items for our day in. See, it was supposed to get up to 98F with a heat index of 105F today. I bet the Chicago weathermen are embarrassed! But we didn’t know they’d be so far off the mark and planned lunch & dinner at Judi’s place.

Poor Elsa experienced sticker shock after she picked out 2 racks of baby back ribs for grilling for supper. First time I’d seen her do a double-take. As nice as it would be to have a Whole Foods near where I live, I doubt if I’d be able to afford to shop there much.

Once we returned, Elsa got the baby back ribs in the crock pot, then broiled the chicken boobies and I made the salads upon which to place said chicken boobies. Lunch was tasty. Then we had a relaxing afternoon of reading, computing, and more reading. I took a walk to the park where Judi walks her dog, Patty, and sat reading for awhile. Then, sure enough, Judi walked Patty and the three of us returned to the apartment.

And then we got to the title of today’s post. See, Judi hasn’t had a chance to use her grill yet this summer. So she cleaned it and tried to light it for finishing off the ribs. Only it wouldn’t light. If only we had a long match, she said. “You got any spaghetti?” I asked her. She showed me to the spaghetti, which I couldn’t keep lit long enough to light the propane, so I asked for tape and then taped a match to spaghetti.

After a few attempts (which kept getting blown out by the wind), I finally heard a whoosh! Yes, we have whoosh! But then it went out. By then, the grill’s lighter started working again, so Judi got it going again. Where the fire lasted longer… and then went out. But the fourth castle stayed up! I mean, huge tracts of land! Grrrr, I’ve been hijacked by a Monty Python movie!

Anyhoo, the grill eventually burned strongly and we got the asparagus and the baby back ribs grilled. Along with baked potatoes and pineapple upside-down cake (that Elsa had made this afternoon), we had a fabulous supper! And after supper, Elsa and I got another episode of Game of Thrones watched. (Alas, we won’t get all 10 watched before we leave on Monday.)

Tomorrow, our Saturday tradition of Dim Sum for brunch will continue. And we have tickets to a show at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. And I’m hoping we’ll get to see fireworks at Navy Pier, too!