Archives for category: photos

Already kind of blew healthy-eating today with that giant Red Robin burger, so why not go all out? I bought a can of cinnamon chip scones at Sprouts, and soon after jumping two feet off the ground and yelping like a puppy when the can popped open (haven’t I outgrown that yet??), I had eight AMAZING-smelling scones. I wish I could sent this smell out to all of you; it’s phenomenal.

cinnamon scones

mmmmmmmmmmm

This is the portable x-ray diffraction machine I’m using for my second research project with Brian. We’re analyzing rocks from volcanic environments.

portable XRD!
XRD tuning fork

This big tuning fork is used to shake the sample, since you can’t move the x-ray emitter around the sample, as you normally would, when you’re on Mars. In the top photo I’ve put the sample in the well, in the bottom photo I’ve turned on the external shaker, and the sample was moved into the tiny windowed area, ready to be analyzed.

This XRD is a duplicate of the XRD onboard the Mars Science Laboratory! See its sister ‘in action’ in this MSL animatic:

the light outside is completely purple due to this sunset

be sure to rollover ‘notes’ to see photo captions!

Ian and I checked out the mineral show (and fossil show) and had a great time geeking out over rare and beautiful minerals. There were some hand samples I really wanted to buy, but I didn’t have hundreds of dollars to spare (or tens of thousands as the case may be) but I got a few great samples that I’m really happy with!

This tomato is too pretty to eat :/

…but I will anyway. With sadness.

Lunch! #nofilter

sunset over the Flatirons

behold!

Toasted brie, dark chocolate & roasted strawberries

my dinner - toasted brie, dark chocolate & roasted strawberries

be sure to rollover ‘notes’ to see photo captions!

Tea at Dushanbe, ‘Brave’, dinner at Brasserie Ten Ten, hiking at Eldorado Canyon, farmers’ market, horseback riding in Rocky Mountain National Park, BBQ and exploring Estes Park.

Ever since I got that crazy glitter set, I’ve been looking for excuses to use it. So when Renée came into town, I decided to make her a fun birthday card to go along with the rest of her belated-birthday goodies!

popsicle card I made for Renée

I saw a similar popsicle card at the store with tiny plastic sprinkle-like dots instead of glitter…but it was $6! And also glitter is way better than sprinkles (on non-edible items at least). I bought some plain cards with matching envelopes at Target. I sketched out the shape I wanted for the popsicle and colored in the stick and popsicle with colored pencils in case the glitter didn’t provide full coverage. I used a darker brown colored pencil to make the stick look like wood. I used plain Elmer’s glue because I didn’t have a glue stick or anything less-thick (I will need to pick up thinner glue for future projects, since the Elmer’s saturated the paper and made it wavy). I did one color at a time, letting it dry a bit before moving on. Then I did the lettering with a glue pen.

I really like how it turned out! I did have to weigh it down a bit to un-wave it, but I think it’s pretty good for a first attempt.