Category: LiveJournal

Autumn Comes Early

Still a couple of days until we’re really into Autumn, but with out recent cool & pleasant days along with the autumn festivals, it feels like we’re into my favorite season already. Yay!

Last weekend didn’t have much in the way of festivals, but the folks joined me on Sunday for BBQ chicken from the local fire house (their bi-annual fundraiser) and a Netflix stream of Tangled. We enjoyed the food and the movie.

Also last weekend was my first attempt at beer bread that wasn’t from a kit. Turns out beer bread is a pretty simple recipe. Since I had 3 cans of Guinness left from my Guinness brownies, I found a Guinness beer bread recipe and tried it. Pretty tasty, albeit a bit bitter. Really good lightly toasted with butter on.

Yesterday, after work, I joined the folks for an outing to the Lake Festival. At Lake Loramie (where my folks cottage is) they have an annual Antique Power Show and Lake Festival. There’s a group there that sells HUGE pots of mums for $5, so mum gets her mums from there. I decided to buy a pot this year too, so I’ll have some lovely white mums on my porch if I don’t kill the plant first!

We ate brats with kraut for supper there, shared a corn dog, had corn on the cob (still sweet!), and then I decided to try the deep fried Twinkie one group was offering. Wow, who knew that deep frying even makes Twinkies taste good?!

I spent the night with the folks, and this morning (late this morning) we did the Farmer’s Market runs as usual. I bought a red pepper at one (should have gotten my sweet onion from there too) and some Houtz cheese (a hard goat cheese) from the other. I put the cheese in the cooler we brought along just in case they had the cheese this time, and then we went to Taste of Troy.

Several restaurants and businesses had tents at Taste of Troy this year. Rather than being spread out throughout the square, they just had it at Proudy Plaza (where the concerts were held this summer) in order for traffic to still go through the square. I managed to spend $20 worth of tickets on lots of different food things. All pretty tasty. Even have a caramel apple and a piece of peach pie for later.

After we returned, I helped mom move her “new” chair to her bonus room above the garage. Then I headed off to my “shopping chores” before home. In an hour and a half or so, I’m off to Aunt Becky’s for a night of card playing. Don’t need supper, will likely just eat snacks at Becky’s. (I bought Munchies, cuz I’m evil.)

Tomorrow is Rest Up and Do Laundry Day. At work, I’d just like to know what it feels like to be “caught up” again. 🙂 But the weekends are great for having time to enjoy myself. Especially with our wonderful autumn weather!

Festival Time Starts Up Strong!

Ah, today was wondrously cool and breezy (blustery, even). Sure, we’ll be seeing warmer temps at the end of the week, but the promise of autumn is here.

And with the end of summer/start of autumn comes festival season. Two weekends ago was a great start to things. Friday saw Downtown Troy have their “Final Friday” with stores staying open late and lots of local musicians playing outside of shops/restaurants. Some of the local artists were out as well. No street vending of food, but the folks and I sated ourselves with pear hard cider from Leaf & Vine, sangria from the furniture store (that combo made me drunk – I am such a light weight!), and Chinese food from Tokyo Peking.

Saturday, I had agreed to be the DD for my folks and their friends for the FareFest in Versailles (pronounced as spelled). This was the 3rd year of this festival, but the first time for us. The folks and their friends split the cost of my food-only ticket, while they all got their special wine glasses and all the wine, beer, and cider they could drink. Several local restaurants and caterers were there with food as well. The food was excellent and I hear tell the wine & beer was good as well. I got everyone home safe und sound.

The folks and I also attended the downtown concert on the square that night, which was excellent. The brass (and percussion) section of the Air Force Band performed quite a few numbers. I even turned to dad once and said “this group would be great doing a Spike Jones piece” and two songs later, they did a Spike Jones piece! They did Pal-Yat-Chee, which was brilliant. One of the best shows this summer.

Then this last weekend (Labor Day weekend) was a nice end of summer weekend, with all sorts of weather available. Friday was stonking hot, so I stayed inside with my lovely air conditioning. Saturday was nearly as warm, so I went swimming with mom. Our last time in the pool for this year. *sniff* Sunday was a cookout at mom & dad’s cottage at Lake Loramie with my dad’s family. We had an excellent game of Shanghai Rum (I didn’t win, alas) and dad grilled us a fine assortment of tube steaks. Although it had rained (stormed) earlier on Sunday, it left us alone, for the most part, at the cookout.

Labor day was our day at the Piqua Heritage Festival, one of my favorite festivals. I had already felt bad for the folks who camp there the whole 3-day weekend due to the really strong storms early Sunday and the horrid heat of Saturday. Monday was a whole different kettle of fish. It barely reached 60F that day. I was optimistic that it would hit high 60s, but it didn’t, so I was a bit chilly in my t-shirt. Still, the crafts were neat to see and the food was tasty. I had corn on the cob, strawberry lemon shake-up (needed more sugar), fried catfish & fried tater tots. And to top it all off, battered & deep-fried peach. Now THAT was tasty! To take home, I bought kettle corn, saltwater taffy, cinnamon roasted pecans, and a CD of local music (Celtic Bluegrass, I believe.)

Later that afternoon, when I was relaxing with the cats, working on a website, and finally thawed out, mom called to say that we were invited to a cookout with her family – right now. So I finished the website update and headed out (this time with a jacket) for dinner with the Andersons. It was lovely to see folks again, and the food was tasty. My cousin, Gregg, grilled sliders and dogs, both nicely done.

So now, summer is over but for the equinox. But thankfully, festival season has only just begun!

As Summer Fades Away

The end of my summer vacation was quite boisterous.

It all started when my friend Erik (my best friend in elementary) called to say he had time to come and visit. This was Monday, the 15th. This was significant since Erik has been living in the Czech Republic for many years now. He and his daughter, plus his sister (who currently lives in Paris) and her son stopped in for a few hours. The kids loved the toys in my house (actually, so did Erik and his sis, heh). Alas, the time I got to spend with them was brief, but it was lovely to see them again and to meet their kids. They’ve both since returned to their respective countries and spouses.

Then last Thursday (wow, a week ago now?) was our first day of work – a day to work in our rooms. I’d actually been going in and working an hour or two (or more) each day for the previous two weeks, so this was more like an extended day like that. Friday were meetings in the morning followed by more work time. But then I was ready to head off to meet up with my folks and then we went to the airport to pick up my sister!

Yup, my little sis managed to get away briefly for a visit last weekend. We had a lovely time. Friday night was dinner at Club 55. Saturday morning we went to the farmer’s markets, then most of the rest of the day was spent preparing for our party that night.

Saturday evening, the folks along with friends of ours, hosted a party at their club house. Dad invited “the usual lot” who often went to O’Brian’s to see Rick Fannin perform. Since O’Brian’s went out of business, however, we’d not been seeing him much. So Dad and Moe hired Rick to come and play at the Club House. In addition to “the usual lot” the folks invited folks from their gated community. Amy was the bartender and we had plenty of beer, wine, and margarita mix. Rick was, as usual, wonderful and the villagers really enjoyed him – as much as “the usual lot.” 🙂

Sunday was a bit more relaxed and we wound up watching the third Millennium movie (The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest) by the evening. (At least, I think that was Sunday.) I had to work again Monday, but returned to the folks’ for another evening with Amy (and the folks). We played cards that night with one of mom’s best friends. It was great getting to play pinocle.

Tuesday was the first day of school, which was a good one. Big classes this year, which is pretty wonderful. (Physics is full – that’s pretty nifty!) Since it was the first day of school, Tradition says we must go out to Frisch’s for supper. Amy was excited to be joining us for this tradition. 🙂 I stayed up late both Monday and Tuesday to get my quota of Amy. Heh.

Wednesday I drove to school so that I could bug out as soon as teachers were allowed and head to Troy. Then we piled into the car and took Amy back to the airport. *sniff* We embarrassed her mightily as she went through security and she waved to us before zipping off to her gate. She got home safe und sound and is hopefully having a lovely time with her girlfriend and their cat, Curtis. 🙂

So now I’m relaxing in my library with soft music playing and Lucy sleeping on top of the comfy chair. Dunno where Linus is now, but we spent some quality scritching time after work while I vegged at my PC. Overall, a wonderful end to the summer and a great start to the school year. Yay!

Overlord Anniversary

This month marks the Five Year Anniversary of my little furry overlords coming to rule this household. I’d been meaning to post some recent photos of the speebies (the word you get when your tongue trips while saying “sweeties”), so tonight I am doing just that. Thank you, Linus and Lucy, for coming into my life five years ago! You’re the delights of my eyes. 🙂

Lucy & Linus Enjoy a Snack
Lucy & Linus Enjoy a Snack

Linus in Repose
Linus in Repose

Lucy in Repose
Lucy in Repose

Linus under Cover
Linus under Cover

Lucy's Path to Napville
Lucy’s Path to Napville

Linus on the Scratchy Pad
Linus on the Scratchy Pad

Lucy Poses for the Camera
Lucy Poses for the Camera

Rum Runner

You know the old saying, "Pix or it didn’t happen!" So here I present you with photos of my Trunkful of Booze.

Trunkful of Booze
Trunkful of Booze

Countertop of Booze
Countertop of Booze


[Second photo L->R: case of hard cider, Upland Rad Red, Upland Wheat, Oliver wine, case of Fat Tire, Oliver wine, Trader Joe’s wines.]

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.